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Britain and Slavery: Sources

Module description

Britain led the world in pursuing both slavery and its abolition. For some, this global system of theft and murder generated vast wealth and enabled access to influence and prestige at the highest levels of British society. For others, it represented a mortal evil that had to be stopped at any cost. This module introduces you to the sources that document Britain’s historical and contemporary relationships to slavery, emphasising the experiences and testimonies of the enslaved themselves. Bringing together black autobiography, propaganda, manuscript correspondence, art, and ‘big data’ sources, this module explores how slavery came home to Britain.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module, along with its Context co-requisite, examines the evolving relationship between colonial slavery and metropolitan life in Britain from the mid-seventeenth century century to the mid-nineteenth, along with how that history has been publicly commemorated and deliberately forgotten. By examining black autobiography, court records, quantitative databases, visual and material culture, published polemic, architecture, and manuscript materials from Exeter’s special collections, it aims to give you a grounding in the many ways in which slavery and its cultures insinuated themselves into everyday life in Britain. It complicates familiar narratives of slavery and abolition by exploring the ways in which both sides of the discussion were linked to imperial expansion, racial thought, social hierarchies, and international diplomacy. In terms of its source selection, this module has a special emphasis on the experiences of the enslaved themselves, in particular making extensive use of first-hand enslaved testimony, encouraging you to consider the human implications of a vast, global system. It also considers the memory, representation and legacies of this history in the contemporary world, using modern art, campaigning materials, film and the built environment to explore the afterlives of slavery in Britain.

Through dialogue with the Context co-requisite, you will be encouraged to engage with these diverse sources using a range of disciplinary approaches, for instance by paying attention to how composition and the use of colour, as well as historical context, affected how slavery was represented in British art. This module therefore aims to introduce you to interdisciplinary approaches to complex historical questions; no formal prior training in these methodologies is expected.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Understand the different types of sources available for the study of colonial slavery and its lasting impact on metropolitan Britain, leading to a very close specialist knowledge of specific sources which you will focus upon in their seminar presentations and written work.
• 2. Analyse the complex diversity of sources relating to British slavery, especially those produced about or by the enslaved, from a range of disciplinary perspectives
• 3. Describe and explain the changing representations and effects of slavery in Britain

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Analyse closely original sources and to assess their reliability as historical evidence.
• 5. Comprehend complex historical texts.
• 6. Understand and deploy relevant historical terminology in a comprehensible and sophisticated manner.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Select, organise and analyse material for written work and/or oral presentations of different prescribed lengths and formats.
• 8. Present complex arguments orally.
• 9. Present an argument in a written form in a clear and organised manner, with appropriate use of correct English
• 10. Through essay development process, demonstrate ability to reflect critically on your own work, to respond constructively to feedback, and to implement suggestions and improve work on this basis

Syllabus plan

This module focuses on a range of different source-types, documenting the relationship between Britain and slavery from the early eighteenth century to the present day. Organised broadly chronologically, it examines the following themes: the beginnings of British slavery; slavery and the development of the British economy; the effects of slavery on migration to Britain and its demography; conceptions of human difference, especially the emergence of whiteness; slavery and British responses to the American, French and Haitian revolutions; the resistance of the enslaved, including violent uprisings, absconding, tool-breaking, infanticide, and publishing testimony; slave-produced commodities and consumer culture, including boycotts; the abolitionist movements; the role of antislavery in the expansion of the British Empire; the lasting legacies of British slavery; and the commemoration and forgetting of slavery in contemporary culture.

You will be introduced to the broad chronology and key developments in the history of transatlantic slavery at the beginning of the course, along with some of the major collections of primary sources available for their consultation including major online collections and manuscript materials subject to availability. The seminars themselves will focus on specific sources drawn from online databases, published transcripts, or material held locally in Exeter’s special collections. Working closely with these materials alongside the historiography and contextual material in the Context co-requisite, you will be encouraged to approach them from a range of disciplinary perspectives to shed light on each week’s key themes and questions, as highlighted above. You will be expected to prepare for seminars by reading and evaluating the relevant sources in advance, and will discuss the issues raised by them in the seminars. In addition, you will be asked to work in groups to examine and present sources you have researched independently, drawn from the major collections they have been introduced to during the course.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

The re-assessment consists of a 4000 word portfolio of source work, as in the original assessment, but replaces the individual presentation with a written script that could be delivered in such a presentation and which is the equivalent of 25 minutes of speech (2,500 words).

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Perspectives of the enslaved:

 • Ottobah Cugoano, Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species (London, 1787).
• Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African, written by himself (London, 1789).
• Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, an African Prince, as Related by Himself (Bath, [1772]).
• John Jea, The Life, History and Unparalleled Sufferings of John Jea, The African Preacher (Portsea, [1817]).
• Boston King, ‘Memoirs of the Life of Boston King’ in: Anon. (ed.), The Methodist Magazine, for the Year 1798; Being a Continuation of The Arminian Magazine (London, [1799]), pp. 105-110, 157-161, 209-213. 261-265
• Mary Prince, The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave, Related by Herself, 3rd ed. (London, 1831).
• Ignatius Sancho, Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, An African (London, 1782).
• .
• Robert Wedderburn, The Horrors of Slavery (London, 1824).
• Phillis Wheatley, Complete Writings, ed. Vincent Carretta (London, 2001).

Other published material:
• Anon., Slave Trade: The Negro and the Free-born Briton compared; or, a Vindication of the African Slave Trade (London, 1788)
• Anon, Address to the Females of Great Britain on the Propriety of their Petitioning Parliament for the Abolition of Negro Slavery (London, 1833).
• Thomas Clarkson, The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade (London, 1808), 2 vols.
• William Fox, An Address to the People of Great Britain, on the Propriety of Abstaining from West India Sugar and Rum (London, 1791).
• Edward Long, The History of Jamaica, (London, 1774), 2 vols.
• Granville Sharp, A Representation of the Injustice and Dangerous Tendency of Tolerating Slavery (London, 1769).
• William Wilberforce, The Speech of William Wilberforce Esq. […] on the Question of the Abolition of the Slave Trade (London: Logographic Press, 1791).

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

Online Databases:
• The Antislavery Usable Past: http://antislavery.ac.uk/
• Legacies of British Slave-ownership Database: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs
• Runaway Slaves in Britain: https://www.runaways.gla.ac.uk/
• The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database: https://www.slavevoyages.org/

Visual and Material Culture:
• Anon., anti-slavery milk jug, c.1820
• George Cruikshank, The New Union Club (1819)
• Robert Cruikshank, John Bull Taking a CLEAR VIEW of the NEGRO SLAVERY QUESTION!!! (1826)
• Graham Fagen, Plans and Records (2007)
• Lubaina Himid, Swallow Hard: The Lancaster Dinner Service (2007)
• Gabriel Matthias, ‘William Ansah Sessarakoo’ (c.1749)
• Josiah Wedgwood, Anti-slavery cameo (1787)

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

• Exeter Electronic Library resources include:
• Eighteenth-Century Collections Online (ECCO); Making of the Modern World; British Library Newspapers Online; Nineteenth Century Periodicals Online; Selections from The National Archives

Key words search

Slavery; Abolition; Empire; Britain; Race