Library Results | Royal Museums Greenwich

The many-headed Hydra : the hidden history of the revolutionary Atlantic /Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker. Linebaugh, Peter 2002. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 382(261.1)

Observations on a Guinea voyage in a series of letters addressed to the Rev. Thomas Clarkson Stanfield, James Field 1788 • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 326.1(041):094

Humanitarian governance and the British antislavery world system / Maeve Ryan. "Between 1808 and 1867, the British Navy's Atlantic squadrons seized nearly two thousand slave ships, 're-capturing' almost two hundred thousand enslaved people and resettling them as liberated Africans across sites from Sierra Leone and Cape Colony to the West Indies, Brazil, Cuba, and beyond. In this wide-ranging study, Maeve Ryan explores the set of imperial experiments that took shape as British authorities sought to order and instrumentalise the liberated Africans, and examines the dual discourses of compassion and control that evolved around a people expected to repay the debt of their salvation. Ryan traces the ideas that shaped 'disposal' policies towards liberated Africans, and the forms of resistance and accommodation that characterized their responses. This book demonstrates the impact of interventionist experiments on the lives of the liberated people, on the evolution of a British antislavery 'world system', and on the emergence of modern understandings of refuge, asylum, and humanitarian governance."--Provided by the publisher. 2022. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 306.3/620941

Representing enslavement and abolition in museums : ambiguous engagements /edited by Laurajane Smith ... [et al.]. "The year 2007 marked the bicentenary of the Act abolishing British participation in the slave trade. "Representing Enslavement and Abolition on Museums"- which uniquely draws together contributions from academic commentators, museum professionals, community activists and artists who had an involvement with the bicentenary - reflects on the complexity and difficulty of museums' experiences in presenting and interpreting the histories of slavery and abolition, and places these experiences in the broader context of debates over the bicentenary's significance and the lessons to be learnt from it. The history of Britain's role in transatlantic slavery officially become part of the National Curriculum in the UK in 2009; with the bicentenary of 2007, this marks the start of increasing public engagement with what has largely been a "hidden" history. The book aims to not only critically review and assess the impact of the bicentenary, but also to identify practical issues that public historians, consultants, museum practitioners, heritage professionals and policy makers can draw upon in developing responses, both to the increasing recognition of Britain's history of African enslavement and controversial and traumatic histories more generally"-- 2011. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 326:069.5

Black Atlantic : power, people, resistance /edited by Victoria Avery and Jake Subryan Richards. "An illustrated history of the relationship between Cambridge and the Black Atlantic. Between 1400 and 1900, European powers, not least Britain, colonised the Americas and transported over 12.5 million people from sub-Saharan Africa as slaves. The contested space, formed by the interactions of multiple people and cultures, both Black and white, we now call the Black Atlantic. Cambridge and Cambridgeshire played a key role in this international narrative - a story of commerce, profit and colonialism, of opinion-forming, and of struggle. Through the lens of historic artworks, artefacts and natural history specimens, this book and the exhibition it accompanies analyse the rise and growth of enslavement, the profits made by Dutch and British traders and plantation-owners, the power of images, the knowledge produced by enslaved people, histories of resistance movements and the consequences of these events today. Works by contemporary makers challenge long-held assumptions, address erasures, and create alternative narratives of repair, freedom and justice."--Provided by the publisher. 2023. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 382.440942659

Pulling together : the making of a global maritime trade union /Andrew Linington. "Ship masters and officers may not seem like pioneers of trade unionism. However, this history of their unique union, Nautilus International, shows how they have been pitched into the forefront of a long struggle for decent jobs, fair pay and conditions, employment rights, and health and safety - all in an international industry marked by savage and cut-throat competition. From the formation, in 1857, of the Mercantile Marine Service Association (MMSA) - the foundation stone in the building of today's union - the book explains the remarkable ways in which the union has adapted and developed to meet the changing and complex challenges faced by members. From the provision of specialist welfare services and a global network of legal support to its leading role in the development of the international 'bill of rights' for seafarers, the union and its forerunners have been at the cutting edge of cradle-to-grave support for members."--Provided by the publisher. 2023. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 331.88113875

The War of Jenkins' Ear : the forgotten struggle for North and South America, 1739-1742 /Robert Gaudi. A definitive work of history, The War of Jenkin's Ear is the only single comprehensive volume on the subject. In these pages Robert Gaudi explores the causes and consequences of a neglected conflict that dictated the destinies of two continents." 2021. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 973.26

Global lives : Britain and the world, 1550-1800 /Miles Ogborn. Ogborn, Miles. 2008. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 38(410)"1550/1800"

Sugar changed the world : a story of magic, space, slavery, freedom, and science /by Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos. Sugar has left a bloody trail through human history. Cane--not cotton or tobacco--drove the bloody Atlantic slave trade and took the lives of countless Africans who toiled on vast sugar plantations under cruel overseers. And yet the very popularity of sugar gave abolitionists in England the one tool that could finally end the slave trade. This book traces the history of sugar from its origins in New Guinea around 7000 B.C. to its use in the 21st century to produce ethanol. 2010. • BOOK • 1 copy available. J/664.1/ARO

Sweetness and power : the place of sugar in modern history /Sidney W. Mintz. "In this eye-opening study of how Europeans and Americans transformed sugar from a rare foreign luxury to a commonplace necessity of modern life, and how a slave crop, and the growing demand for it, transformed the history of capitalism and industry, Sidney Mintz asks us to consider the many ways in which sugar has become "meanginful" in modern Western life. [...] Sidney Mintz discusses the production and consumption of sugar, and reveals how closely interwoven are its origins as a "slave" crop grown in Europe's colonies with its use first as an extravagant luxury for the aristocracy, then as a staple of the diet of the new industrial proletariat. [...] Finally, Professor Mintz considers the meaning of food and eating in our own society. Sugar has facilitated the modern transformation of work patterns, consumption habits, and diet, and Sweetness and Power asks us to understand what this means."--Provided by the publisher. 1985. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 394.1/2

The Humphrey Morice papers from the Bank of England, London Morice, Humphry, 1998. • MICROFILM • 2 copies available. 326.1

The Glasgow sugar aristocracy : Scotland and Caribbean slavery, 1775-1838 /Stephen Mullen. "This important book assesses the size and nature of Caribbean slavery's economic impact on British society. The Glasgow Sugar Aristocracy, a grouping of West India merchants and planters, became active before the emancipation of chattel slavery in the British West Indies in 1834. Many acquired nationally significant fortunes, and their investments percolated into the Scottish economy and wider society. At its core, the book traces the development of merchant capital and poses several interrelated questions during an era of rapid transformation, namely, what impact the private investments of West India merchants and colonial adventurers had on metropolitan society and the economy, as well as the wider effects of such commerce on industrial and agricultural development. The book also examines the fortunes of temporary Scottish economic migrants who traveled to some of the wealthiest of the Caribbean islands, presenting the first large-scale survey of repatriated slavery fortunes via case studies of Scots in Jamaica, Grenada, and Trinidad before emancipation in 1834. It, therefore, takes a new approach to illuminate the world of individuals who acquired West India fortunes and ultimately explores, in an Atlantic frame, the interconnections between the colonies and metropole in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries."--Provided by the publisher. [2022] • BOOK • 1 copy available. 381.44094144

Natural rebels : a social history of enslaved Black women in Barbados /Hilary McD. Beckles. "Although we are learning a lot from historians about the lives of slaves in the United States, we still know little about slavery in the Caribbean. Hilary Beckles's book on the social, economic, and labor history of slave women in Barbados, from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth century, is a major addition to this literature. Drawing on contemporary documents and records, newspapers, and personal correspondence, Beckles reveals how slave women were central to the plantation economy of Barbados. They had two kinds of value for sugar planters: they could work just as hard as men, and they could literally reproduce the slave class. Beckles details the daily lives of slave women in conditions of extreme exploitation. They suffered from harsh conditions, cruel punishments, malnutrition, disease, high morality, and fear of abandonment when they were too old to work. He describes the various categories and responsibilities of slaves, and the roles of children in the slave economy. Beckles looks at family structures and the complexities of interracial unions. He also shows how female slaves regulary resisted slavery, using both violent and non-violent means."--Provided by the publisher. 2000. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 305.5/67/082

Journey back to freedom : the Olaudah Equiano story /Catherine Johnson ; with illustrations by Katie Hickey. "Aged only eleven, Olaudah Equiano was cruelly snatched from his home in Africa and sold into slavery. He spent much of the next ten years serving various masters at sea, travelling to the far corners of the globe. He witnessed horrendous cruelty and occasional kindness, while experiencing daring adventures and extreme peril. Throughout it all, he never gave up hope that one day he would be free again."-- 2022. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 306.362092

A dark history of sugar / Neil Buttery. "A Dark History of Sugar delves into our evolutionary history to explain why sugar is so loved, yet is the root cause of so many bad things. Europe's colonial past and Britain's Empire were founded and fuelled on sugar, as was the United States, the greatest superpower on the planet - and they all relied upon slave labour to catalyse it. A Dark History of Sugar focusses upon the role of the slave trade in sugar production and looks beyond it to how the exploitation of the workers didn't end with emancipation. It reveals the sickly truth behind the detrimental impact of sugar's meteoric popularity on the environment and our health. Advertising companies peddle their sugar-laden wares to children with fun cartoon characters, but the reality is not so sweet. A Dark History of Sugar delves into our long relationship with this sweetest and most ancient of commodities. The book examines the impact of the sugar trade on the economies of Britain and the rest of the world, as well as its influence on health and cultural and social trends over the centuries. Renowned food historian Neil Buttery takes a look at some of the lesser-known elements of the history of sugar, delving into the murky and mysterious aspects of its phenomenal rise from the first cultivation of the sugar cane plant in Papua New Guinean in 8,000 BCE to becoming an integral part of the cultural fabric of life in Britain and the rest of the West - at whatever cost. The dark history of sugar is one of exploitation: of slaves and workers, of the environment and of the consumer. Wars have been fought over it and it is responsible for what is potentially to be the planet's greatest health crisis. And yet we cannot get enough of it, for sugar and sweetness has cast its spell over us all; it is comfort and we reminisce fondly about the sweets, cakes, puddings and fizzy drinks of our childhoods with dewy-eyed nostalgia. To be sweet means to be good, to be innocent; in this book Neil Buttery argues that sugar is nothing of the sort. Indeed, it is guilty of some of the worst crimes against humanity and the planet."--Provided by the publisher. 2022. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 338.47664109

Freedom's debtors : British antislavery in Sierra Leone in the age of revolution /Padraic X. Scanlan. ''A history of the abolition of the British slave trade in Sierra Leone and how the British used its success to justify colonialism in Africa British anti-slavery, widely seen as a great sacrifice of economic and political capital on the altar of humanitarianism, was in fact profitable, militarily useful, and crucial to the expansion of British power in West Africa. After the slave trade was abolished, anti-slavery activists in England profited, colonial officials in Freetown, Sierra Leone, relied on former slaves as soldiers and as cheap labor, and the British armed forces conscripted former slaves to fight in the West Indies and in West Africa. At once scholarly and compelling, this history of the abolition of the British slave trade in Sierra Leone draws on a wealth of archival material. Scanlan's social and material study offers insight into how the success of British anti-slavery policies were used to justify colonialism in Africa. He reframes a moment considered to be a watershed in British public morality as rather the beginning of morally ambiguous, violent, and exploitative colonial history.''Provided by the publisher. [2017] • BOOK • 1 copy available. 306.3/6209664

The British navy in the Caribbean / John D. Grainger. "This book charts the involvement of the British navy in the Caribbean from the earliest times to the present. It recounts the voyages of sixteenth century English adventurers such as John Hawkins and Francis Drake and their attacks on Spanish territories, outlines the capture of Jamaica during the time of Oliver Cromwell's rule and describes the growth of the British slave trade. It goes on to discuss the late seventeenth century and eighteenth century conflicts and wars with the Dutch, Spanish and French and the War of American Independence, analyses the effect of the abolition of the slave trade and explores the British dominance which prevailed throughout much of the nineteenth century. The book concludes by examining how in the twentieth century the British navy withdrew almost entirely from the Caribbean, tacitly ceding control to the United States. Throughout the book relates developments in the Caribbean to developments in Britain and in the British navy more widely."--Provided by the publisher. 2021. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 359.00941

Negotiating abolition : the antislavery project in the British Strait Settlements, 1786-1843 /by Shawna R. Herzog. "Negotiating Abolition: The Antislavery Project in the British Straits Settlements, 1786-1843 explores how sex and gender complicated the enforcement of colonial anti-slavery policies in the region, the challenges local officials faced in identifying slave populations, and how European reclassification of slave labor to systems of indenture or 'free' labor created a new illicit trade for women and girls to the Straits Settlements of Southeast Asia. Through a history of early-19th century slavery and abolition in this often overlooked region in British imperial history, Herzog bridges a historiographical gap between colonial and modern slave systems. She discusses the dynamic intersectionality between perceptions of race, class, gender, and civilization within the Straits and how this informed behavior and policy regarding slavery, abolition, and prostitution within the settlement. This book provides an important new perspective for scholars of slavery interested in Southeast Asia, British imperialism in the Indian Ocean world and Asia, the East India Company in the Straits, and gender and sexuality in the context of empire."--Provided by the publisher. 2021. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 326/.809033

Africa and the Africans in the making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800 "This book explores Africa's involvement in the Atlantic world from the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries. It focuses especially on the causes and consequences of the slave trade, in Africa, in Europe, and in the New World. Prior to 1680, Africa's economic and military strength enabled African elites to determine how trade with Europe developed. Thornton examines the dynamics which made slaves so necessary to European colonizers. This edition contains a new chapter extending the story into the eighteenth century."--Provided by the publisher. 1999 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 325.45(6):326

The Atlantic / Butel, Paul. 1999 "Paul Butel's essential new survey of the Atlantic covers the history of this ocean from antiquity to the present day. The book is organised along chronological lines, starting with the Greek and Roman oceanic myths and ending with cruise-ship holiday makers of the late twentieth century. Paul Butel charts the political and cultural developments of over 2,000 years of seafaring, succinctly describing and explaining the way nations have used the Atlantic to their own advantage. Among subjects covered are the Greek and Roman voyages, Viking seafaring, Columbus's expeditions and the English and Portuguese discoveries of the fifteenth century. Trade with South America by Mediterranean countries is also closely examined, as is the English slave trade of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which was central to the development of the Atlantic system. Paul Butel follows the fortunes of the French and British colonists of the eighteenth century and the expanding tobacco, sugar and coffee markets of that era. In the twentieth century much of the story of the ocean is taken up by various discrete and global wars, but it was also a period of fertile exchange and growth."-- Provided by the publisher. 1999 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 930.9(261)

The worlds of unfree labour : from indentured servitude to slavery /edited by Colin A. Palmer. 1998. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 326.1

Staying power : the history of black people in Britain /Peter Fryer "'STAYING POWER is a panoramic history of black Britons. Stretching back to the Roman conquest, encompassing the court of Henry VIII, and following a host of characters from Mary Seacole to the abolitionist Olaudah Equiano, Peter Fryer paints a picture of two thousand years of Black presence in Britain. First published in the 1980s, amidst race riots and police brutality, Fryer's history performed a deeply political act; revealing how Africans, Asians and their descendants had long been erased from British history. By rewriting black Britons into the British story, showing where they influenced political traditions, social institutions and cultural life, was - and is - a deeply effective counter to a racist and nationalist agenda.This new edition includes the classic introduction by Paul Gilroy, author of 'There Ain't No Black in the Union Jack', in addition to a brand-new foreword by Guardian journalist Gary Younge, which examines the book's continued significance today as we face Brexit and a revival of right wing nationalism."--Provided by the publisher. 2018. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 305.896041

Slavery, capitalism and the Industrial Revolution / Maxine Berg and Pat Hudson. "For too long, the role of slavery in driving Britain's economic development has been marginalized. In their remarkable new book, Maxine Berg and Pat Hudson 'follow the money' to document in revealing detail the role of slavery in the making of Britain's industrial revolution. Slavery was not just a source of wealth for a narrow circle of slave owners who built grand country houses and filled them with luxuries. The forces set in motion by the slave and plantation trades seeped into almost every aspect of the economy and society. In textile mills, iron and copper smelting, steam power, and financial institutions, slavery played a crucial part. Things we might think far removed from the taint of slavery, like 18th century fashions for indigo-patterned cloth, sweet tea, snuff boxes, mahogany furniture, ceramics and silverware, were intimately connected. Even London's role as a centre for global finance was partly determined by the slave trade as insurance, financial trading and mortgage markets were developed in the City to promote distant and risky investments in enslaved people. The result is a bold and unflinching account of how Britain became a global superpower, and how the legacy of slavery persists. Acknowledging Britain's role in slavery is not just about toppling statues and renaming streets. We urgently need to come to terms with slavery's inextricable links with Western capitalism, and the ways in which many of us continue to benefit from slavery to this day."--Provided by publisher. 2023 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 382/.440941

British abolitionism and the question of moral progress in history / edited by Donald A. Yerxa. "In this collection historians use the abolition of the British slave trade as a case study for exploring the larger interpretive question of moral progress in history. Approaching their subject from the standpoints of social, economic, religious, scientific, and political history, the fourteen contributors explore connections between religious belief and social transformation, the material and cultural structures needed to translate altruism into successful political movements."--Provided by the publisher. 2012. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 326.8(42)

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