Punishment, sexual violence and colonial social control
A few words about this learning step. It is with great care that we provide this subject matter. While it is important to understand the role of discipline in plantation …
Course: History of Slavery in the British Caribbean
Meet the team
Top (left to right): Dr. Peggy Brunache, Dr. Christine Whyte, Dr. Sally Tuckett, Dr. Jelmer Vos Bottom (left to right): Dr. Zachary J.M. Beier, Dr. Tara Inniss, Dr. Shani Roper, …
The Organisation of the Slave Trade on the African Coast
To understand the complexity of the transatlantic slave trade one could begin by studying the large variety of merchandise European and American slave ships carried to the African coast. Slave …
Becoming enslaved in West Africa
This video introduces the circumstances in which people were enslaved in West Africa. Watch Professor Olatunji Ojo explain more. When reading histories of slavery, enslaved people are sometimes referred to …
Second Maroon War 1795 – History of Slavery
By this point, it should be clear that Jamaica during the eighteenth century was in constant internal turmoil between Whites and the enslaved community. Jamaica was Britain’s richest colony but …
Covert: strikes, religion and belief
In essence, covert resistance is any action that does not seek to overturn the institution of slavery but instead, provides respite or a sense of freedom for the individual …
Slave Rebellion in the Eighteenth Century: Tacky’s Revolt
An overwhelming preoccupation for white colonists was the possibility of a slave uprising. This concern was justified as there had been continuous conspiracies and attempts at rebellion since plantation economies …
Women, resistance, truancy
In this video, Dr Tara Inniss of the University of the West Indies explains how enslaved people could resist slavery by refusing to work, making themselves absent and ‘going-slow’. These …
Clothing for the Enslaved
In eighteenth and nineteenth-century Britain clothing was an essential marker of social status. With the expansion of the British empire these western notions of dress were transferred to the Caribbean, …
Burial practices and grave goods
Thousands of enslaved labourers are buried in unmarked plantation cemeteries. Situations can arise where archaeologists uncover a burial ground that may be in danger of being destroyed and can excavate …
Slavery in the British Caribbean: Timeline Review
Timeline: 1562 to 1833 1562 – First English slaving expedition led by Sir John Hawkins to present day Sierra Leone. Hawkins transported a total of 1,200 African captives into slavery …
Slave Codes: The Legalisation of Racialised Violence
The sugar boom in the British island colonies required more (forced) labour for the ever-growing sugar plantation economy. However, during the second half of the seventeenth century, shifting colonial demographics …
Creoles, Creolisation, and Atlantic Colonial Society
The term ‘creole’ and the process of creolisation have multiple definitions, often dependent on geographical and temporal contexts. In some cases, definition of creole is underpinned by linguistics (i.e, Haitian …
Black childhood in the post-emancipation era
Dr Roper continues her discussion on Black childhood in the British Caribbean. We shift to the nineteenth and early twentieth century to understand the role of a child within the …
Liberating Africans and the abolition of the slave trade – Richard Anderson interview
The legal abolition of slavery in the British Empire was a long, staggered and interrupted process. Because the slave trade and slavery was so integral to the British economy, the …