Several sessions in this module are directly about historiography: how historians approach and interpret the study of the past, including disagreements between scholars.
This session will focus on the historiography of slavery and abolition, introducing some key themes and debates. This will include the definition of historiography, the distinctions (and connections) between polemic and academic arguments, and questions of how to approach researching and writing about historiography.
You will notice that many of the debates surrounding slavery and abolition in the British Caribbean relate in some way or another to Eric Williams’s famous work of 1944, Capitalism and Slavery. Williams’s book is now used mainly as a point of historiographical reference for scholars. They refer it because the questions that it provoked remain relevant. You should find out what you can about Williams and his book for this session.
Some suggested reading:
Heuman, G. ‘Slavery, the Slave Trade and Abolition’. In Winks, R. (ed) The Oxford History of the British Empire: Volume 5, Historiography (1999).
Morgan, K. ‘Williams, Eric Eustace (1911–1981)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004). Electronic Resource
Palmer, C. Eric Williams and the Making of the Modern Caribbean (2006) (chapter 1).
Petley, C. ‘New Perspectives on Slavery and Emancipation in the British Caribbean’, The Historical Journal 54/3 (2011), pp. 855-80. Electronic Resource
Walvin, J. Questioning Slavery (1996).
Williams, E. Capitalism and Slavery (1944). https://archive.org/details/capitalismandsla033027mbp