The Legacies of the British Slave Trade: The Structures and Significance of British Investment in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, c. 1550-1807

Lead Research Organisation: Lancaster University
Department Name: History

Abstract

What was the structure of British investment in the slave trade? What was the significance of the slave trade to Britain's economic, political, and cultural development? This project seeks to answer these two questions by collating and improving existing data and completing new research to create a comprehensive prosopography of the 6,524 British investors in the slave trade, c.1550-1807. The project will use this data set to engage with seven overlapping research contexts. First, it traces capital outflows from the trade into other sectors of the British economy to assess the trade's significance to British economic development. Second, the project offers the first comprehensive assessment of capital inputs into the slave trade to understand the changing structures of investment into the trade, and to situate the slave trade within the context of other commercial enterprises. Third, the project will explore the role of slave trade investment in the shaping of national and local politics and culture, including the liberalization of the trade in the C17 and abolition in the C19. Fourth, the project will deepen understanding of the role of race and empire in the formulation of British identity by examining the significance of commodification to the racialized depiction of enslaved Africans that emerged in Britain during the C17 and C18. Fifth, the project systematically explores the role of women not only as investors, but also as transmitters of slaving wealth and as bonds in the social and familial networks constructed around the slave trade to offer new perspectives on the importance of gender to early modern commercial enterprises. Sixth, the project's prosopography and network analysis will allow historians of the slave trade to influence a wider interdisciplinary community interested in how individual actors make decisions based on their social, cultural, and economic relationships. Seventh, this project's data set provides historians with a unique opportunity to understand the processes that helped integrate Britain's national market in the C17 and C18. Engaging with these seven research strands, this project seeks to engage a range of scholars working across disciplines. Building on the success of two precursor projects on the Legacies of British Slavery [RES-062-23-1764; ES/J017736/1], this project will therefore offer a new emphasis on the slave trade's commercial context and of the networks that structured investment within the slave trade, while highlighting the degree to which the business was embedded within the British economy. The project team will publicize these findings through ten world-leading research articles that will reshape the salience of the slave trade in the fields of economic, political, and cultural history. The project will simultaneously nurture the academic careers of three PDRAs through an innovative, nationwide team structure. It will form a stakeholder panel and engage the inhabitants of former slave trading ports in the implementation of the project through a series of workshops, and establish local and national networks that will survive the project-life. At the project's conclusion, the project will make the data set freely available, creating an important new resource for exploring the histories of colonial slavery, the commercial and industrial revolutions, the C18 urban renaissance, African slavery's role in the development of British institutions and culture, and local and regional pasts. The project will thus inscribe the history of the transatlantic slave trade fully into the story of British social and economy development, helping British society confront, disclose, and memorialize the slave trade.

Publications

10 25 50
publication icon
Nicholas Radburn (2023) "The British Gunpowder Industry and the Atlantic Slave Trade,' in Business History Review,

publication icon
William A Pettigrew (2021) The Royal African Company in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

 
Description The importance of the English monarchy to the establishment of the transatlantic trade in enslaved African people
The interconnections between the Royal Navy and the establishment of the transatlantic trade in enslaved African people
The ways in which London slave traders were elite merchants in the seventeenth century but became marginal to the City of London by the eighteenth century
The first insight into the role of female investors in the development of the slave trade
Exploitation Route In many ways as institutions begin to confront their connection to these histories. This aspect of the work is currently protected by confidentiality, but will be revealed at the end in accordance with the grant's aims
Sectors Creative Economy

Education

Financial Services

and Management Consultancy

Government

Democracy and Justice

Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections

 
Description Helping institutions confront, recognise, and process their historic connections to the transatlantic trade in enslaved African people. At present this aspect of our work is protected by confidentiality, but will be revealed at the launch of the project's dataset.
First Year Of Impact 2022
Sector Agriculture, Food and Drink,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Education,Financial Services, and Management Consultancy,Leisure Activities, including Sports, Recreation and Tourism,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
Impact Types Cultural

Societal

Policy & public services

 
Description Association of Charitable Foundations 
Organisation Association of Charitable Foundations
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Association of Charitable Foundations
Collaborator Contribution co-design a toolkit for organisations seeking to assess the role of colonialism in developing their endowments and to reflect on how they can process this information constructively for all their stakeholders.
Impact Briefing pack for members of ACF
Start Year 2023
 
Description Lloyd's of London 
Organisation Lloyd's of London Ltd
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Assistance with appreciating connections to historic slave trading
Collaborator Contribution Provision of data and guidance
Impact - none at present ,only planned
Start Year 2022
 
Description Advisory Role for the Museum of the Home 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Supporters
Results and Impact This activity informed how this institution related to its past and how this relationship was communicated to the present
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021