British Slave Ownership and its economic, social, political and cultural legacies
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: History
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Catherine Hall (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Catherine Hall
Indigenous Networks. Mobility, connections and exchange
Catherine Hall (Author)
(2011)
Whose island narrative?
Catherine Hall (Author)
(2012)
On being an historian in 2012
Catherine Hall (Author)
(2012)
Making histories : slave owners and their legacies
Catherine Hall (Author)
(2012)
Making histories : slave owners & their legacies
Draper N
(2012)
Capitalism and Slave Ownership: A Response
in Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism
Draper N
(2012)
The rise of a new planter class? Some countercurrents from British Guiana and Trinidad, 1807-33
in Atlantic Studies
Hall C
(2011)
TROUBLING MEMORIES: NINETEENTH-CENTURY HISTORIES OF THE SLAVE TRADE AND SLAVERY
in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society
Hall C
(2014)
Gendering Property, Racing Capital
in History Workshop Journal
Hall C
(2011)
Feature: Modern British History * The State of Modern British History
in History Workshop Journal
| Description | Our overall finding is that British colonial slave-ownership was of far greater significance to metropolitan Britain's economy, society, polity and culture than has previously been recognised, and that its importance continued beyond the period of Emancipation. We have established the life-trajectories of some 3000 absentee slave-owners in Britain, and analysis of this corpus has allowed us to trace the legacies of slave-ownership in the formation of Victorian Britain. Our drive for a comprehensive approach and our construction of a major new dataset has allowed us to move beyond the case-study approach to provide a systematic account of slave-ownership which strongly supports the view that empire was constitutive of modern Britain, a thesis which has remained highly contested. At the same time as we have been able to specify the areas in which this impact was felt, we have identified others in which it was less formative or even imperceptible. We have significantly modified the 'decline' thesis of the decay of the West Indian slave-economy after the abolition of the slave-trade in 1807 by identifying the rise of a new planter class in Britain connected with British Guiana (Draper, 2012). We have traced the continuing importance of slave-owners in the development of new sectors of the City of London, especially in the development of the financial structures of the settler colonies and in a commercial 'swing east' by former slave-owners. We have demonstrated the role of slave-owners and their immediate families in the rewriting of slavery after Emancipation to re-denominate the slave-owners as the victims of Emancipation (Hall, 2012) and we have shown the re-incorporation of the slave-owners into the mainstream of British politics of the 1850s and 1860s, both developments contributing to the 'racial turn' in British thinking in the third quarter of the 19th century. We have mapped the slave-owners at the time of Emancipation to identify their physical, cultural and social legacies in particular areas of concentration in cities and towns throughout Britain. We have quantified the very large extent of Scottish slave-ownership and shown that slave-ownership was comparatively marginal to Ireland and Wales. Our proposal for a multi-author volume by the members of the project team summarising the project findings has been accepted by Cambridge University Press for publication in 2013. We plan to deploy the dataset from the Legacies of British Slave-ownership as the foundation of a new ESRC and AHRC-funded project, The structure and significance of British slave-ownership 1763-1833, which will develop a diachronic analysis of estate ownership in the British Caribbean over the last 70 years of slavery in order to deepen the understanding of the connections of slavery and Empire to Britain's economic, commercial and cultural transformation in this period. We will therefore be able to maintain, update and extend the dataset created in the recently completed project within the research context of the new one. |
| Exploitation Route | The publication of the project database in February 2013 has stimulated new lines of enquiry and new work among community groups, local and regional historians, family historians and within British schools. The geographical search function provides access to information for local historians on slave-ownership in each street, city, county and region of Britain. This search function is also of use to school teachers who can show children that slave-ownership occurred among people who lived in their locality. The biographical details and relationships function are useful for family historians. Community groups have used the empirical results in discussions about the payment of reparations for slavery. The project has already had significant impact empirically and methodologically. The empirical findings are re-shaping the understanding of the 'decline' thesis of the decay of the West Indian slave-economy after 1807, the significance of slave-ownership for C19th Britain, and the wider reconfiguration of economy, society and politics in the period. These findings are evident, for example, in the papers given by external contributors to the project-organised colloquium, 'Emancipation, Slave Ownership and the Remaking of the British Imperial World' (March 2012), in Nicholas Draper, 'The rise of a new planter class? : some countercurrents from British Guiana and Trinidad, 1807-33', Atlantic studies, 9 (1) (2012), pp. 65-83, and in other outputs. The methodological impact is two-fold: first, broadening the scope of what is thought of as 'British' history by situating Britain as an imperial social and political formation; second, through integrating economic and social, cultural and political histories in to a unified framework. See, for example, Catherine Hall, 'The State of Modern British History', History Workshop Journal, 72 (1), (2011), pp. 204-10. |
| Sectors | Financial Services, and Management Consultancy |
| URL | http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs |
| Description | The Legacies of British Slave-ownership project aims to reinscribe slave-ownership back into accounts of the development of 18th and 19th century Britain, not only in academia but also in the wider public narrative. To this end, we have implemented a public engagement strategy which can be viewed in more detail in the 'Engagement activities' outcomes section and will only be summarised here. The widest reach has been through television. LBS research was the backbone of Britain's Forgotten Slave-owners, a two-part programme made by the LBS team in conjunction with the BBC, which was shown on BBC2 in the summer of 2015. The programmes won the inaugural RHS Public History prize for broadcasting, the BAFTA for best specialist factual programme, and were nominated for the Royal Television Society's history prize. The programmes reached a combined audience of 3 million people in Britain (and have been distributed worldwide), sparking a national discussion of Britain's past involvement in slavery. Reviewers summarised the impact in glowing terms: in the Daily Mail (16 July 2016), for example, "Last night's documentary was truly jaw-dropping in its revelations. David Olusoga and his team deserve huge credit for their research and this film, which was as important and informative as it was disturbing" (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3163231/How-Britain-s-middle-class-mint-abolishing-slavery-Claudia-Connell-reviews-night-s-TV.html). Reviewers noted that a study of the past can enhance our understanding of the present: the Guardian (23 July 2015), for example, described the programmes as "a thoughtful, thorough, unswerving guide to how slavery was abolished, but the underlying ideas and attitudes endure" (https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/jul/23/britains-forgotten-slave-owners-review). LBS followed up using other media, giving interviews to radio stations, online magazines and newspapers. LBS contributed to an iWonder guide on the BBC website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zw8dq6f) giving guidance on how people could explore the subject in more depth. Our use of the media to encourage public debate has been consistent throughout the life of the LBS project; for example, an article about our newly extended database published in the Independent 25 September 2016 has been 'shared' over 9,400 times and attracted 715 comments (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/24/slave-owning-families-influenced-uk-jane-austen-modern-rroyalty-eugenie-beatrice). Catherine Hall wrote an article for the Guardian on the same day connecting historical slavery with modern hate crimes; the article has been 'shared' 6,800 times and attracted over 400 comments (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/26/racist-ideas-slavery-slave-owners-hate-crime-brexit-vote). To enhance the reach and significance of the project's impact on public awareness and debate, members of the LBS team have spoken to very many diverse organisations and groups about the project and its work. For example, in autumn 2015 we organised day-long workshops in Exeter, Glasgow, Manchester and Nottingham and in autumn 2016 we held two events in London with a combined audience of 500 people. The emphasis in our workshops has been on local and regional history, tailoring our work to the interests of local people. Through these workshops we have stimulated and helped sustain networks of independent local historians. LBS has formed a partnership with the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography to secure a more adequate representation of slave-ownership in the ODNB. Some three dozen new entries have been commissioned and completed, and hundreds of existing entries reviewed and where necessary revised. A very substantial impact is achieved by our online database, launched on 28 February 2013 and greatly extended in September 2016. Crucial to its success is its accessibility and usability for the general public. Visitors to the site can search for individuals by surname, forename, age, address, religion, occupation, by level of wealth, by size of slave-ownership, by colony and estate name for each holding or by an open search of the freeform notes - and therefore easily access the data according to the users' wide variety of interests. The extension in September 2016 added thousands more slave-owners and gave information on the histories of over 8,000 estates in the British Caribbean between 1740 and 1834. The extension included 19th century maps of Jamaica, Grenada and Barbados with modern satellite overlays linked to estates in our database, allowing users a new 'way in' to our data. The viewing figures for our website provide evidence that our publicity drive is increasingly effective. Between the launch of the website on 28 February 2013 and 20 December 2016 we have had 872,361 visits from 594,873 users in 226 countries or territories. A little under one-third (31.7%) of users return to the site. LBS has assisted, and in turn been assisted by, hundreds of family historians in their research. The level of email correspondence, primarily from descendants of slave-owners and the enslaved, continues to increase. In 2013 we were receiving between 2 and 5 emails a week with research from members of the public; in 2016 the average has been more than 10 a week. In 2013 and 2014 we added to our website 330 slave-owners' biographies with information contributed by members of the public; in 2015 and 2016 we added a further 700 publicly-assisted entries. Many emails have resulted in a long-term relationships with LBS providing sources and suggestions to individual correspondents. The LBS project has not only made its research available to large numbers of people through a wide range of media but helped thousands of non-academics to conduct their own historical investigations. We also produce a monthly newsletter distributed to over 500 people with news of upcoming events and updates to our database. We have been working with schools and colleges to assist in an understanding of slave-ownership. LBS has completed a pioneering partnership with Hackney Museum and with two Hackney schools in the Global Routes/Local Roots project, both having a significant impact on the learning of specific groups of current students and establishing a body of experience as a template for future collaboration. The project website contains resources for teachers comprising background notes, lesson plans, an image gallery, glossary and film (https://lrgr14.wordpress.com/resources/teaching-resources/). Finally, LBS has helped shape or intervened in a number of public policy and political debates. The work of LBS has been taken up in the debates over reparations, with extensive use of our work by the Chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission Sir Hilary Beckles in his Britain's Black Debt (UWI Press, Mona, Jamaica 2013) and elsewhere. The launch of our Phase 2 database stimulated an important Editorial in The Observer 25/09/2016 (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/25/slavery-database-britain-must-take-responsibility). We have contributed a section to the Runnymede Trust's Our Migration Story site (http://www.ourmigrationstory.org.uk/about.html), primarily an education resource but also promoting a wider social and policy agenda. The LBS team intervened in the controversy over anti-Semitism in the Labour Party with an open letter in The Observer 05/06/2016 (http://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-observer1702/20160605/282342564103073) concerning the alleged role of Jews in the slave-trade and slavery. The work of LBS has succeeded in making the legacies of slave-ownership a topic of engaged and informed public debate, with an impact on national memory and, through this, the way we view ourselves. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2007 |
| Sector | Education,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Title | Legacies of British Slave-ownership database |
| Description | A database of all the claims for compensation submitted following the Emancipation Act of 1834 (c. 40,000 claims) and the names of the individuals connected to these claims (c. 47,000 individuals) with more detailed biographical information on those individuals we have identified as living in Britain from the mid-1830s onwards (c. 3,000 individuals). |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2013 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | We undertook a major publicity campaign in February 2013 to alert people to the publication of our online database. For hundreds of thousands of people in Britain this made the lasting impact of slavery more tangible than they had previously imagined. The public debate is evidenced in the 60+ newspapers and radio stations which discussed our database in the weeks following its publication, the 100,000 visits to our website in the month following publication and the several thousand tweets relating to the project. In the past 18 months we have received over 700 emails about our database from members of the public; each email has been answered by us and has often led to a long correspondence and sharing of information. We have updated the biographies of c. 200 individuals in our database as a result of information sent to us by members of the public. |
| Description | 'Feeding the ghosts' : George Hibbert, the West India docks and the re-memory of British slave-ownership |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Paper looking at the relationship between slavery and memory though an analysis of George Hibbert's involvement in the West India Dock scheme and his later representation at the Museum of London in Docklands in both 2003 and 2007. Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | 'Slave-ownership, reparations and restitution: history and historians in Britain and continental Europe' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Type Of Presentation | paper presentation |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Seminar paper given at the Seminaire Franco-Britannique d'Histoire at Universite Paris IV -Sorbonne Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | 'We must be honest about our role in slavery.' Article in Independent by Nick Draper |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Newspaper article by Nicholas Draper outlining the extent to which slavery contributed to the development of 19th century Britain Part of a publicity drive by the Legacies of British Slave-ownership team to make people aware of the online LBS database, resulting in over a hundred thousand hits on the website, tens of thousands of tweets and shares, numerous blogs, several hundred emails to the LBS project, several hundred contributions to our research from members of the public. Sparked a widespread and increasingly informed debate about the legacies of British slave-ownership and gave people some tools to invesitgate the matter for themselves (which they often did). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| URL | http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/we-must-be-honest-about-our-role-in-slavery-8508357.html |
| Description | After slavery : free trade, sugar and the reconfiguration of the state 1833-52 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Given to the Reconfiguring the British: Nation, Empire, World 1600-1900 seminar at the Insitute of Historical Research, London. Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| URL | http://www.history.ac.uk/events/seminars/145 |
| Description | After slavery : protectionists, the West India interest and the sugar duties |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presented at the 'Humanitarianism and abolitionism' seminar, part of the 'Centre for Colonial and Post-Colonial Studies' series. Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| URL | http://www.sussex.ac.uk/migration/newsandevents/events?id=7826 |
| Description | Birmingham, slavery and abolition : re-thinking the legacies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Annual Lecture for the Friends of Birmingham Archives and Heritage. Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| URL | http://birmingham.gov.uk/cs/Satellite?c=BCC_Event_C&childpagename=SystemAdmin%2FCFPageLayout&cid=122... |
| Description | Britain's colonial shame: Slave-owners given huge payouts after abolition (article in Independent on Sunday) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Newspaper article outlining the information available in the Legacies of British Slave-ownership database Part of a publicity drive by the Legacies of British Slave-ownership team to make people aware of the online LBS database, resulting in over a hundred thousand hits on the website, tens of thousands of tweets and shares, numerous blogs, several hundred emails to the LBS project, several hundred contributions to our research from members of the public. Sparked a widespread and increasingly informed debate about the legacies of British slave-ownership and gave people some tools to invesitgate the matter for themselves (which they often did). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| URL | http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/britains-colonial-shame-slaveowners-given-huge-payout... |
| Description | Britain's debt to slavery in the diaspora |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Newspaper article outlining the slave compensation process in British Guiana and how to use the Legacies of British Slave-ownership database Large increase in enquiries about our work from listeners in South Africa and more contributions from them. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| URL | http://www.stabroeknews.com/2013/features/in-the-diaspora/03/25/britains-debt-to-slavery/ |
| Description | Britain's legacy of slavery |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The Legacies of British Slave-ownership project brings to light the ways in which modern Britain, from its financial institutions to its art collections and grand buildings, has been built from the wealth generated from slavery. In this video, Professor Hall reflects on the texts of two women from the 19th century - one a slave, the other an abolitionist and daughter of a wealthy slave-owner. Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| URL | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQFL-5xf55c |
| Description | Britain's massive debt to slavery (article in Guardian by Nick Draper) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Article in the Guardian's 'Comment is Free' section discussing the process of remembering and forgetting as it took place in Britain's memory of slavery Part of a publicity drive by the Legacies of British Slave-ownership team to make people aware of the online LBS database, resulting in over a hundred thousand hits on the website, tens of thousands of tweets and shares, numerous blogs, several hundred emails to the LBS project, several hundred contributions to our research from members of the public. Sparked a widespread and increasingly informed debate about the legacies of British slave-ownership and gave people some tools to invesitgate the matter for themselves (which they often did). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| URL | http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/27/britain-debt-slavery-made-public |
| Description | Compensating for slavery : legacies of British slave-ownership : a seminar |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | At this seminar, the organizers of the Legacies of Slave-Ownership project - Catherine Hall, Nicholas Draper, and Keith McClelland - will present the preliminary findings of their work and lead a conversation on the broader implications for the study of slavery and its legacies. Discussants will include David Beck Ryden (University of Houston), Elizabeth Elbourne (McGill University), and Kathleen Wilson (State University of New York - Stony Brook). Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| URL | http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cih/pdf/2011_announcement.doc |
| Description | Compensating slave-owners : compensating for slavery? : the legacies of British slave-ownership project in context |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Seminar paper given at the Institute for the Study of Slavery, University of Nottingham, on the work of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership project. This paper explores the connections between the compensation paid to British colonial slave-owners in the 1830s and more recent debates over reparations and restitution for slavery. It sets the work now underway in the Legacies of British Slave-ownership project at UCL in the context of the historical process of compensation to British colonial slave-owners, and highlights some of the issues raised in taking this work into the realm of public history. Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Compensation for slave-owners : individual, state and nation in British emancipation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Type Of Presentation | paper presentation |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Departmental Research Seminar, Royal Holloway University of London Department of History Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Darwins in Bloomsbury : a reading and debate |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The lecture was about the association of Bloomsbury with supporters of antislavery (such as Darwin) and with slave-owners. Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| URL | http://www.ucl.ac.uk/environment-institute/forthcoming-events/darwin |
| Description | Displaced histories : memories of the slave trade and slavery |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Building on the LBS project this paper explored the memories and histories of the slave trade and slavery produced by a number of those who either received compensation themselves or were the descendants of slave owners. The focus was on a group of writers, including Theodora Lynch, who lived between England and Jamaica and wrote extensively both for adults and children about their Caribbean experiences and their memories of slavery. Furthering the ideea of what we remember and what we forget. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Eric Williams' history-writing |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Contribution to the Roundtable on Eric Williams's Capitalism and Slavery with fellow-panelists Richard Drayton (KCL) and Bill Schwarz (QMUL). Discussion about contrasting views of the economic impact of slave-ownership. Developing new arguments and sharing information. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Eric Williams, capitalism and slave-ownership |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Seminar at Centre for Research in Economic Sociology and Innovation, Department of Sociology, University of Essex Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Feeding the ghosts : George Hibbert and the memory of British slave ownership |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Paper looking at the relationship between slavery and memory though an analysis of George Hibbert's involvement in the West India Dock scheme and his later representation at the Museum of London in Docklands in both 2003 and 2007. Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | From respectability to transgression? : the politics and ethics of British colonial slave-owning on the eve of emancipation |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Paper given at the Oxford Global and Imperial History Seminar, History Faculty, Oxford Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Interview on the 'Today' programme |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Live interview on the Today programme with James Naughty about the slave compensation process and the publication of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership database. Part of a publicity drive by the Legacies of British Slave-ownership team to make people aware of the online LBS database, resulting in over a hundred thousand hits on the website, tens of thousands of tweets and shares, numerous blogs, several hundred emails to the LBS project, several hundred contributions to our research from members of the public. Sparked a widespread and increasingly informed debate about the legacies of British slave-ownership and gave people some tools to invesitgate the matter for themselves (which they often did). There were over 20,000 hits on our website on the day this interview aired. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21598782 |
| Description | Interview with Colourful Radio |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Live radio interview on Colourful Radio outlining the resources available in the Legacies of British Slave-ownership database and how to use the database Part of a publicity drive by the Legacies of British Slave-ownership team to make people aware of the online LBS database, resulting in over a hundred thousand hits on the website, tens of thousands of tweets and shares, numerous blogs, several hundred emails to the LBS project, several hundred contributions to our research from members of the public. Sparked a widespread and increasingly informed debate about the legacies of British slave-ownership and gave people some tools to invesitgate the matter for themselves (which they often did). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Introduction to the 'Legacies of British slave-ownership' project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Given at a meeting of the BP Oil International PEN (Positively Ethnic Network), a network for UK-based black and ethnic minorities within BP. Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Legacies of British slave-ownership |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Outline of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership project. Informing interested members of the public and activists. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://bsatheory.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Full-Programme-Final4.pdf |
| Description | Legacies of British slave-ownership : George Hibbert |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A case study of the LBS project's wider themes, detailing George Hibbert's impact on the political, social, cultural and economic life of London. Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Legacies of Scottish slave-ownership : Scotland's share in Britain's colonial slave empire |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Paper delivered at the Scottish History Research Seminar in association with the Scottish Centre for Diaspora Studies. Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Live radio interview on the 'Upfront Show' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Live radio interview on the 'Upfront Show' on BBC Radio Merseyside outlining the Legacies of British Slave-ownership database with an emphasis on Liverpool's role in the system of slavery Part of a publicity drive by the Legacies of British Slave-ownership team to make people aware of the online LBS database, resulting in over a hundred thousand hits on the website, tens of thousands of tweets and shares, numerous blogs, several hundred emails to the LBS project, several hundred contributions to our research from members of the public. Sparked a widespread and increasingly informed debate about the legacies of British slave-ownership and gave people some tools to invesitgate the matter for themselves (which they often did). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Live radio interview with BBC Northern Ireland |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Live radio interview in which Nicholas Draper outlined the resources available in the Legacies of British Slave-ownership database with specific emphasis on slave-owners from Northern Ireland Part of a publicity drive by the Legacies of British Slave-ownership team to make people aware of the online LBS database, resulting in over a hundred thousand hits on the website, tens of thousands of tweets and shares, numerous blogs, several hundred emails to the LBS project, several hundred contributions to our research from members of the public. Sparked a widespread and increasingly informed debate about the legacies of British slave-ownership and gave people some tools to invesitgate the matter for themselves (which they often did). This particular interview sparked articles in the local press and a range of responses from the public to the local issues this raised in Northern Ireland and in Larne in particular. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Mapping slavery : the Hibberts, slavery and London |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation charting the multiple ways in which slavery is embedded in the history of the City of London. Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Neale lecture and colloquium in British history : emancipation, slave ownership and the remaking of the British imperial world |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Type Of Presentation | keynote/invited speaker |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The colloquium aims to present the findings of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership project and engage with current work exploring the importance of slavery and slave-ownership in the re-making of the British imperial world after abolition in 1833. Whilst the 2007 bicentenary of the end of the slave trade inaugurated an explosion of popular interest in Britain's role in the slavery business, much is still unknown about the significance of slavery to the formation of modern imperial Britain. Yet in 1833, abolition was heralded as evidence of Britain's claim to be "the" modern global power, its commitment to representative government in Britain, free labour, the rule of law, and a benevolent imperial mission all aspects of a national identity rooted in notions of freedom and liberty. This conference will bring together historians from Britain, the US and the Caribbean to discuss the legacies of slavery and slave-ownership. Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Property in men |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A lecture to the Law of Property LLB class at SOAS on property law and slave-ownership. Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Radio Interview with BBC English Regions |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Radio interview with Colleen Harris from BBC English Regions about the publication of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership database Part of a publicity drive by the Legacies of British Slave-ownership team to make people aware of the online LBS database, resulting in over a hundred thousand hits on the website, tens of thousands of tweets and shares, numerous blogs, several hundred emails to the LBS project, several hundred contributions to our research from members of the public. Sparked a widespread and increasingly informed debate about the legacies of British slave-ownership and gave people some tools to invesitgate the matter for themselves (which they often did). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Radio interview with 'Focus on Africa' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Radio interview given by Nicholas Draper on the BBC World Service's 'Focus on Africa' programme about the Legacies of British Slave-ownership database. Part of a publicity drive by the Legacies of British Slave-ownership team to make people aware of the online LBS database, resulting in over a hundred thousand hits on the website, tens of thousands of tweets and shares, numerous blogs, several hundred emails to the LBS project, several hundred contributions to our research from members of the public. Sparked a widespread and increasingly informed debate about the legacies of British slave-ownership and gave people some tools to invesitgate the matter for themselves (which they often did). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Radio interview with BBC Radio Solent |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Pre-recorded interview for BBC Radio Solent outlining the information in the Legacies of British Slave-ownership database and how to use it. Sparked wider debate among people who may or may not have considered the issue before (see section on impacts, below). Part of a publicity drive by the Legacies of British Slave-ownership team to make people aware of the online LBS database, resulting in over a hundred thousand hits on the website, tens of thousands of tweets and shares, numerous blogs, several hundred emails to the LBS project, several hundred contributions to our research from members of the public. Sparked a widespread and increasingly informed debate about the legacies of British slave-ownership and gave people some tools to invesitgate the matter for themselves (which they did). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Radio interview with Radio Peace FM |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Live radio interview with Radio Peace FM in Manchester outlining the Legacies of British Slave-ownership database with an emphasis on slave-owners from north-west England Part of a publicity drive by the Legacies of British Slave-ownership team to make people aware of the online LBS database, resulting in over a hundred thousand hits on the website, tens of thousands of tweets and shares, numerous blogs, several hundred emails to the LBS project, several hundred contributions to our research from members of the public. Sparked a widespread and increasingly informed debate about the legacies of British slave-ownership and gave people some tools to invesitgate the matter for themselves (which they often did). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Revealed: Samantha Cameron is descended from aristocratic slave-owner (Daily Mail article) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Newspaper article outlining the slave-owning ancestry of Samantha Cameron which includes an interview where Nicholas Draper explains the slave compensation process Part of a publicity drive by the Legacies of British Slave-ownership team to make people aware of the online LBS database, resulting in over a hundred thousand hits on the website, tens of thousands of tweets and shares, numerous blogs, several hundred emails to the LBS project, several hundred contributions to our research from members of the public. Sparked a widespread and increasingly informed debate about the legacies of British slave-ownership and gave people some tools to invesitgate the matter for themselves (which they often did). This article was much-quoted in tweets and shares online and provides an example of a journalist taking our research, adding to it further, and thus fueling the debate. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| URL | http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2323286/Samantha-Cameron-linked-aristocratic-slave-owner-vic... |
| Description | Revisiting histories of the slave trade and slavery |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The lecture concerned the practices of remembering and forgetting associated with slave-owners and their descendants who received compensation. The focus was on Lord Holland, the leader of the Whigs in the 1820s, who wrote a history of the Whig party and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the well-known English poet who wrote a celebrated antislavery poem. Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| URL | http://www.ancien.paris-sorbonne.fr/spip.php?article13398 |
| Description | Revisiting histories of the slave trade and slavery |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Lecture on revisiting histories of the slave trade and slavery. Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| URL | http://www.ancien.paris-sorbonne.fr/spip.php?article13398 |
| Description | Secret shame: The Scots who made a fortune from abolition of slavery (article in Herald Scotland) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Newspaper article about the Legacies of British Slave-ownership database and the role of Scotland in the slave economy, resulting from an interview with Nick Draper. Part of a publicity drive by the Legacies of British Slave-ownership team to make people aware of the online LBS database, resulting in over a hundred thousand hits on the website, tens of thousands of tweets and shares, numerous blogs, several hundred emails to the LBS project, several hundred contributions to our research from members of the public. Sparked a widespread and increasingly informed debate about the legacies of British slave-ownership and gave people some tools to invesitgate the matter for themselves (which they often did). Requests to give talks at various Scottish events. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| URL | http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/secret-shame-the-scots-who-made-a-fortune-from-abolitio... |
| Description | Sir John A. Macdonald had family ties to slave trade (Article in Toronto Globe and Mail) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Newspaper article about the publication of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership database and about the role of John A. Macdonald, Canada's first Prime Minister, in the slave compensation process Part of a publicity drive by the Legacies of British Slave-ownership team to make people aware of the online LBS database, resulting in over a hundred thousand hits on the website, tens of thousands of tweets and shares, numerous blogs, several hundred emails to the LBS project, several hundred contributions to our research from members of the public. Sparked a widespread and increasingly informed debate about the legacies of British slave-ownership and gave people some tools to invesitgate the matter for themselves (which they often did). An noticable increase in hits to our website from Canada and enquiries from Canadian public. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| URL | http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/sir-john-a-macdonald-had-family-ties-to-slave-trade/articl... |
| Description | Slavery - the Utrecht connection? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A public lecture at Utrecht University, in preparation for the commemoration of 150 years of the abolition of slavery in Dutch lands in 2013. Organised by the Centre for the Humanities at Utrecht University in collaboration with Kosmopolis Utrecht. Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| URL | http://www.uu.nl/faculty/humanities/EN/Current/agenda/Pages/20110427-slavery-the-utrecht-connection.... |
| Description | Slavery and memory : the Hibberts in the capital |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Paper tracing the Hibberts' presence in the capital through an analysis of their impact on the political, cultural, economic and physical landscape of London. Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | The city and slavery |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation charting the multiple ways in which slavery is embedded in the history of the City of London. http://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/event/199/The-City-and-Slavery http://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/event/199/The-City-and-Slavery |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | The legacies of British slave-ownership |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | British History 1815-1945 seminar. Talk sparked questions and discussion afterwards. Wider knowledge base for participants. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | The price of emancipation : the slave compensation records as a resource in Caribbean histories |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Caribbean seminar series Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| URL | http://www.sas.ac.uk/events/view/7189 |
| Description | The slave-owners of Bloomsbury exhibition |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A free exhibition organised by the Legacies of British Slave-ownership project to mark Black History Month 2011. Over 500 leaflets were taken by members of the pubic giving information on our project. Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | The state of modern British history |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A round table discussion organised by The Centre for History & Economics and Cambridge University Press to mark the publication of "Structures and Transformations in Modern British History: essays for Gareth Stedman Jones", ed. David Feldman and Jon Lawrence. Panel: Catherine Hall, Frank Mort, Miles Taylor. Chair: Martin Daunton Professor Hall discussed her work on the Legacies of British Slave-ownership project. Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Troubling memories : nineteenth-century histories of the slave trade and slavery |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The lecture, delivered by Professor Catherine Hall, is part of the Royal Historical Society's programme of meetings for 2010. Catherine, who leads the ESRC-funded Legacies of British Slave Ownership project, considers the ways in which nineteenth-century historians approached the history of slavery and the slave trade in the decades after the abolition of the trade in 1807. Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| URL | http://www.york.ac.uk/history/news/events/rhs-lecture/ |
| Description | Voicing slavery : Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Mary Prince |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | UCL Lunch Hour Lecture Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| Description | Wealth from slavery : evidence from the slave compensation records |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A presentation highlighting the utility of the LBS database to local and regional historians in the Avon area, and conscripting their support for the work of the project, delivered to an audience of some 150 members of the societies affiliated to ALHA, at the Local History Study Day organised by ALHA in association with the Regional History Centre of the University of the West of England. More people from the Avon area used our database and contributed information to it. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | What does London owe to slavery? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Public lecture on London and slavery, as part of UCL's Lunch Hour Lecture series. "For Liverpool and Bristol much work has been done in tracing the role of the slave-trade and slavery in shaping the cities' histories, but the scale and complexity of London's growth in the 18th and 19th centuries has obscured the contribution of slavery to the formation of the modern capital. This lecture explores the evidence for the centrality of slavery in understanding how London became what we know it as today. This lecture marks Black History Month." Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010 |
| URL | http://events.ucl.ac.uk/event/event:r1c-gbjdju6x-9w3umg/ |
| Description | Whose histories? : slave-owners stories of the slave trade and slavery |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Building on the LBS project this paper explored the memories and histories of the slave trade and slavery produced by a number of those who either received compensation themselves or were the descendants of slave owners. The focus was on two particular writers - Captain Frederick Marryat and Charles Kingsley - both of whom played a significant part in shaping popular thinking about race and empire through their adventure stories and/or travel writing. Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Whose island narrative? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Keynote address at a conference organised by the British Sociological Association, 'Re-thinking the modern: colonialism, slavery and empire'. The paper concerned the origins of the British 'island story', one which marginalised questions about the slave trade and slavery, strongly associated with Whig historians such as Thomas Babbington Macaulay, and the continuities between this and traditions of liberal interventionism. Section not completed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2011 |
| URL | http://bsatheory.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Full-Programme-Final4.pdf |