How was James Watt – hero of the Industrial Revolution – involved in colonial commerce and slavery in mid-eighteenth-century Scotland?
Tag: slavery
Colston Revisited
Madge Dresser argues that statues of slave traders, such as Edward Colston, often served complex local and civic objectives, which were inextricable from historical processes which silenced the voices of enslaved Africans.
Proper Channels
How did Atlantic slavery end? Diana Paton argues that erasing the Haitian Revolution preserves the fiction that Britain is and was a progressive outlier in relation to race and racism
Slavery, coerced labour, and the development of industrial capitalism in Britain
In 1860, decades after the abolition of slavery in Britain, the British economy was more reliant on slave labour than ever before. Mark Harvey explores the links between coerced labour and the production of three crucial commodities: guns, sugar, and cotton.
The Racist History of Jamaica’s Obeah Laws
As debate about Obeah – spiritual and healing practices – erupts in Jamaica, Diana Paton argues that laws against obeah have historically worked to uphold colonial power and to harass poor people.
The IHR 2019 Wiley Lecture: ‘Time Come’: Britain’s black futures past
‘It soon come’, runs the refrain in Linton Kwesi Johnson’s 1974 poem ‘Time Come’. Date 06 Jun 2019, 18:30 to 06 Jun 2019, 20:00 Venue Arts 2 Lecture Theatre, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS Booking Here ‘It soon come / look out! look […]
History from below: a reading list with Marcus Rediker
Jared Davidson introduces Marcus Rediker’s carefully curated list of essential readings to develop a history from below.
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