Britain's slave trade

Further reading

Britain and the Slave Trade by S I Martin (Channel 4 Books, 1999) £14.99.
Exploring how and why the slave trade grew, this book looks at the controversial role that the West African city-states played in facilitating it. Through contemporary first-hand accounts, it reveals how the business of slavery worked and describes the lives of the slaves, their owners and traders. It shows the pivotal role that the trade played in the Industrial Revolution and the establishment of Britain as a world leader, making a direct link between the barbarities of slavery and the prosperity, culture and diversity that Britain enjoys today.

The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery (2 vols) by J Rodriguez (ABC-Clio, 1998) £89.95.
These two volumes, covering more than 4,000 years of world history, reflect on the impact that slavery has had on humanity.

Black People in the British Empire by Peter Fryer (Pluto Press, 1989) £12.99.
The history of exploitation, oppression and underdevelopment perpetrated by British capitalism in the colonies is examined, starting with an account of the British invasion of Ireland in the 12th century and encompassing the Caribbean, India and Australasia.

Africans in Britain by David Killingray (Frank Cass Publishers, 1994) £14.99.
A collection of essays looking at the history of African people in Britain over the past 200 years.

Black England by Gretchen Gerzina (Allison & Busby, 1999) £8.99.
A study of the little-known black society in England during the 18th century.

Aspects of British Black History by Peter Fryer (Index Books, 1993) £4.99.
Based on lectures given by the author, this book analyses the rise and development of British racism, describes black resistance to slavery and colonialism and shows black people as active freedom fighters.

Black Ivory by James Walvin (Fontana, 1993) £9.99.
A social history that examines the Atlantic and African slave trade over 300 years.

The Bahamas from Slavery to Servitude, 1783-1933 by Howard Johnson (University Press of Florida, 1997) £31.95.
Examines the last phase of slavery in the Bahamas as one element in the foundation of later, and perhaps more exploitative, labour systems.

Black Rebellion: Five slave revolts by Thomas Wentworth Higginson and James M McPherson (Da Capo Press, 1998) £10.95.
An account of five insurrections by slaves, who successfully resisted the British army, and how the white population reacted with panic.

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Websites

Bristol

The Bristol Slave Trade Walk
oasis.fortunecity.com/tropicana/294/bristol.htm
Details of the walk - which takes in sites connected to Bristol's involvement in the slave trade - and the Bristol Slave Trade Action Group.

The Atlantic Slave Trade and Provincial Britain
www.uwe.ac.uk/humanities/history/sconfcal.htm
An international conference organised by the Regional History Centre at the University of the West of England, Bristol in April 1999. Includes abstracts from some of the papers presented.

Bristol and Avon Family History Society
www.cix.co.uk/~kgroves/ba/index.html

St Kitts & Nevis History Page
website.lineone.net/~stkittsnevis
Contains information about the Caribbean islands of St Kitts and Nevis and their history, including the links - through the slave trade - between the islands and the British cities of Bristol and Liverpool.

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Liverpool

The History of Liverpool
www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/park/346/history.html

National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside
www.nmgm.org.uk/.html
At the Merseyside Maritime Museum (click on the appropriate picture at the top of the page), the 'Transatlantic Slavery - Against Human Dignity' gallery examines the slave trade and seeks to increase understanding of what has happened to people of African descent in the modern world. There is also information (under 'See and Do') on the Transatlantic Slavery History Trail (guided walks, 4 September to 19 December 1999).

The Trade - Liverpool to Angola to St Kitts
oasis.fortunecity.com/tropicana/294/thetrade.htm
Includes the story of the last Liverpool slave ship, Kitty's Amelia.

Liverpool and South-West Lancashire Family History Society
www.lswlfhs.freeserve.co.uk/

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Organisations

African Reparations Movement (ARM)
the.arc.co.uk/arm/home.html
A UK-based pressure group that campaigns for reparations for the enslavement and colonisation of African peoples, the return of African cultural artefacts to their countries of origin and an accurate portrayal of the contribution of Africans to world history.

Society for Caribbean Studies (UK)
www.btinternet.com/~sandra.courtman/carib.htm
A multidisciplinary organisation - based at the Centre for Caribbean Studies at the University of Warwick - which has brought together an international group of individuals interested in research in all fields to do with the Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora.

The Homeward Bound Foundation (HBF)
middlepassage.org/foundation.htm
A non-profit organisation created for the purpose of encouraging black people around the world in taking an active interest in each other culturally, economically, politically, and socially. The HBF is also devoted to promoting the collective healing from the ravages of transatlantic slavery and its aftermath of racism.

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General

The African-American Mosaic
lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/african/intro.html
A Library of Congress resource guide for the study of black history and culture, with an obvious American bias.

B Davis Schwartz Memorial Library: Web resources on slavery
www.liunet.edu/cwis/cwp/library/aaslvwww.htm
Large number of internet links, with an American bias.

Excerpts from Slave Narratives
vi.uh.edu/pages/mintz/primary.htm
Edited by Steven Mintz of the University of Houston. Variety of extracts from primary sources, divided into 'Enslavement', 'The Middle Passage', 'Arrival', 'Conditions of Life', 'Childhood', 'Family', 'Religion', 'Punishment', 'Resistance', 'Flight', 'Emancipation'.

Slavery and Antislavery
vi.uh.edu/pages/mintz/bib1.htm
Bibliography by Steven Mintz of recent works in English.

Slavery in the US
www.sanluisobispo.com/krtinteractive/0298/022098/slave/slave.htm
A look at the turbulent history of black people in the US from 1619 to the present.

UNESCO ASPnet Slave Route Project
www.saltdal.vgs.no/prosjekt/slavrute/slavkey.htm
A rapidly growing information base about everything related to the triangular slave trade of the 16th-19th centuries and its consequences.

World African Network
www.wanonline.com/blackhistory/
Black history site with lots of stories from around the world.

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Slave ships

The Brookes of Liverpool
oasis.fortunecity.com/tropicana/294/thecargo.htm
This ship was employed in the slave trade in 1783 and was legally allowed to carry 450 slaves. However, it has been proved that it once carried a total of 609 enslaved Africans on the four-month journey from Africa to the Caribbean. The site has a diagram of the ship and its dimensions.

The Fredensborg
www.saltdal.vgs.no/prosjekt/slavrute/fredensborg/start.htm
The Danish-Norwegian slaver Fredensborg, which was sunk by a violent gale off the coast of Arendal, Norway in 1768, and rediscovered in 1974. The site is still under construction.

A Slave Ship Speaks: The wreck of the Henrietta Marie
www.henriettamarie.com/
An exhibit of historical artefacts from a 17th-century slave ship that sank off the coast of Florida in 1700.

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Journals

Slavery and Abolition: A journal of slave and post-slave studies
www.frankcass.com/jnls/sa.htm
Ordering details for a hard-copy journal.

Studies in the World History of Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation
h-net2.msu.edu/~slavery/
An online journal.

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