Slavery Obscured
Subtitle: The Social History of the Slave Trade in an English Provincial Port (The Black Atlantic)
Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group
Published: November 15, 2001
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 224
ISBN-13: 9780826448750
Subjects: International trade; Slavery & emancipation; Social history; History; History - General History; History: World; Somerset; General; International - General; Europe - Great Britain - General; Bristol; Bristol (England); England; Slave trade; Slavery; Social conditions
Description: ""Slavery Obscured" is a new departure in the growing history of the impact of the Atlantic slave trade. It assesses how the slave trade affected the social life and cultural outlook of the citizens of a major English city, and contends that its impact has been more profound than has previously been acknowledged. For much of the eighteenth century, Bristol was Britain's second city and, between 1730 and 1745, its premier slaving port. Based on original research in archives in Britain and America, "Slavery Obscured" builds on recent scholarship in the economic history of the slave trade to ask new questions about the way slave-derived wealth underpinned the city's urban development and its growing gentility. How much did Bristol's Georgian renaissance owe to slave-derived wealth? Who were the major players and beneficiaries of the African and West Indian trades? How, in an ever-changing historical environment, were enslaved Africans represented in the city's press, theatre and political discourse? What do previously unexplored religious, legal and private records tell us about the Black presence in Bristol or about the attitudes of white seamen, colonists and merchants toward slavery and race? What role did white women and artisans play in Bristol's anti-slavery movement?" "Combining a historical and anthropological approach, "Slavery Obscured" sheds new light on the contradictory and complex history of an English slaving port and, by so doing, prompts new ways of looking at British national identity, race and history."--BOOK JACKET.