The bonds of family: Slavery, commerce and culture in the British Atlantic world

Description

Moving between Britain and Jamaica this book reconstructs the world of commerce, consumption and cultivation sustained through an extended engagement with the business of slavery. Transatlantic slavery was both shaping of and shaped by the dynamic networks of family that established Britain’s Caribbean empire. Tracing the activities of a single extended family – the Hibberts – this book explores how slavery impacted on the social, cultural, economic and political landscape of Britain. It is a history of trade, colonisation, enrichment and the tangled web of relations that gave meaning to the transatlantic world. The Hibberts’s trans-generational story imbricates the personal and the political, the private and the public, the local and the global. It is both the intimate narrative of a family and an analytical frame through which to explore Britain’s history and legacies of slavery. Front matter Dedication Contents List of figures List of family trees Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Introduction: Family matters: slavery, commerce and culture Part I Family business: commerce, commodities and credit Manchester Jamaica London Part II Family politics: defending the slave trade and slavery Defending the slave trade Defending slavery Part III Family culture: domesticating slavery Part I Intimate relations: the colony Part II Intimate relations: the metropole Consuming passions: collecting and connoisseurship The culture of refinement: country houses and philanthropy Epilogue: Family legacies: after abolition Select bibliography Index