Professor Trevor Burnard T.G.Burnard@hull.ac.uk
Director of The Wilberforce Institute
Sir John Gladstone and the Debate over the Amelioration of Slavery in the British West Indies in the 1820s
Burnard, Trevor; Candlin, Kit
Authors
Kit Candlin
Abstract
© 2018 The North American Conference on British Studies. Sir John Gladstone made a fortune as a Demerara sugar-planter and a key supporter of the British policy of amelioration in which slavery would be improved by making it more humane. Unlike resident planters in the British West Indies, who were firmly opposed to any alteration to the conditions of enslavement, and unlike abolitionists, who saw amelioration as a step toward abolition, Gladstone was a rare but influential metropolitan-based planter with an expansive imperial vision, prepared to work with British politicians to guarantee his investments in slavery through progressive slave reforms. This article intersects with recent historiography highlighting connections between metropole and colony but also insists on the influence of Demerara, including the effects of a large slave rebellion centered on Gladstone's estates (which illustrated that enslaved people were not happy with Gladstone's supposedly enlightened attitudes) on metropolitan sensibilities in the 1820s. Gladstone's strategies for an improved slavery, despite the contradictions inherent in championing such a policy while maintaining a fierce drive for profits, were a powerful counter to a renewed abolitionist thrust against slavery in the mid to late 1820s. Gladstone showed that that the logic of gradual emancipation still had force in imperial thinking in this decade.
Citation
Burnard, T., & Candlin, K. (2018). Sir John Gladstone and the Debate over the Amelioration of Slavery in the British West Indies in the 1820s. Journal of British Studies, 57(4), 760-782. https://doi.org/10.1017/jbr.2018.115
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | May 15, 2018 |
Online Publication Date | Nov 8, 2018 |
Publication Date | Oct 1, 2018 |
Deposit Date | May 26, 2021 |
Publicly Available Date | Mar 29, 2024 |
Journal | Journal of British Studies |
Print ISSN | 0021-9371 |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 57 |
Issue | 4 |
Pages | 760-782 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1017/jbr.2018.115 |
Public URL | https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3579621 |
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