Neale Conference 2012
UCL Neale Colloquium 2012: Emancipation, slave-ownership and the remaking of the British imperial world
29th-31st March 2012
Old Refectory, Wilkins Building, University College London
The colloquium aimed to present the findings of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership project and engage with current work exploring the importance
of slavery and slave-ownership in the re-making of the British imperial world
after abolition in 1833.
Whilst the 2007 bicentenary of the end of the slave trade inaugurated an
explosion of popular interest in Britain’s role in the slavery business, much
is still unknown about the significance of slavery to the formation of modern
imperial Britain. Yet in 1833, abolition was heralded as evidence of Britain’s
claim to be “the” modern global power, its commitment to representative
government in Britain, free labour, the rule of law, and a benevolent imperial
mission all aspects of a national identity rooted in notions of freedom and
liberty. This conference brought together historians from Britain, the US
and the Caribbean to discuss the legacies of slavery and slave-ownership.
There were five panel sessions, readings and a roundtable across Friday 30th and Saturday 31st March. The colloquium began with an introduction to the LBS project, which has been
investigating what happened to the 20 million pounds of compensation money paid
to British slave owners after 1833, and demonstrated a prototype of the online Legacies of British Slave-ownership
Encyclopaedia. Questions addressed through the following
panels included: what was the character of the British imperial state in the
wake of 1833? What happened to the merchants and planters who had been central
to the West Indian economy and to the culture they had elaborated? What new
forms of unfree labour emerged across the British Empire? How can academic
historians connect with the museums, family and local historians who have made
critical contributions to the understanding of slavery and its legacies? What
are the issues around history, reparations and restitution in the present?
The panel sessions were as follows:
- The imperial state
- Formations of capital: beyond "merchants" and "planters"
- From slavery to indenture
- Public histories, family histories
- Reparations, restitution and the historian.
The
conference was preceded by a free public lecture on Thursday 29th
March by Professor Robin Blackburn (Essex) on "Slavery and Finance in
Britain's Empire of Free Trade".
The full programme is available here: Neale Conference Programme
The conference was supported by the Amiel & Melburn Trust, the Economic History Society and the Tristram family.
The proceedings of the conference will hopefully be published during 2013.
