Author Archives: Christer Petley

We will look at a written document: Matthew Lewis’s journal of his time as a slaveholder in Jamaica, produced around the same time as the image above. Lewis wrote about various aspects of slave life and resistance, but he did so very … Continue reading →

What caused the rise of British antislavery? Were abolitionists moved to act by pure altruism, or did they and those who sympathised with them have other motivations? We will look at how historians have interpreted the rise and success of … Continue reading →

Did Caribbean slavery make Britain rich? What were the legacies of slavery for Britain? We will explore one of the most important controversies in the historiography of British slavery and abolition. Since Eric Williams’s book Capitalism and Slavery was published … Continue reading →

How did enslaved people create communities in the Caribbean? How did they resist slavery? ‘Leonard Parkinson, a Captain of the Maroons’, frontispiece to The Proceedings of the Governor and Assembly of Jamaica in regard to the Maroon Negroes (1796). (Who … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

Over the coming weeks, students taking this module will be spending much of their time researching and preparing group presentations on the following key themes, focusing in particular on how historians have approached and interpreted these. These are the themes (with introductory … Continue reading →

Following on from our work last week, part of this session will be about specific parts of the Caribbean. We will begin with brief discussions about the histories and geographies of the following: Barbados The Leeward Islands (Antigua, St Kitts, Nevis) … Continue reading →

Because it is important for us to have a sense of the chronology of events and places we are going to be studying, this session and the next will focus on parts of the Caribbean and on what happened and … Continue reading →

This will be an introduction to the module, giving an overview of its themes and key questions. We will discuss the handbook, assessment and seminars as well as dividing up work for the next sessions. Though not an academic monograph, this popular history provides a … Continue reading →