The Launch of the British Slave-ownership Website with access to the Slave Compensation Database

Legacies of British Slave-ownership is the umbrella for two projects based at UCL tracing the impact of slave-ownership on the formation of modern Britain: the ESRC-funded Legacies of British Slave-ownership project, now complete, and the ESRC and AHRC-funded Structure and significance of British Caribbean slave-ownership 1763-1833, running from 2013-2015. You can now search the Slave Compensation Database.

Britain's legacy of slavery (UCL): Catherine Hall on Abolition, Compensation, Narrative and the Enslaved Voice

A Response to the Proposed National Curriculum in History in the UK | History Workshop

 The response to the latest proposals for the National Curriculum in History (February 2013) can justifiably be described as historic (or should that be histrionic?). Since the first national curriculum was established in 1988 by the Conservative education secretary Kenneth Baker, the reaction to any changes has tended to be reasonably muted, occasionally even warm. Never before has there been such a vehement opposition comparable to that being engendered by current Conservative education secretary, Michael Gove. A recent poll from the Historical Association (1) showed responses that would force most politicians screeching towards a U-turn; 96% felt that the proposed history curriculum ‘was a negative change’; 96% felt that the curriculum did not provide an effective route for progression in history from Key Stages 1-3; the most positive element that could be gleaned from the survey was that 12% agreed with the overall aims of the new curriculum... Click here to read more: A Response to the Proposed National Curriculum in History | History Workshop

Confronting Barbados' Colonial Past: Reclaiming Heritage

Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison is the featured property in the latest issue of UNESCO's World Heritage Review on Small Island Developing States. Read more about managing heritage in a Caribbean Small Island Developing State.

 

The Island of Saba - Percy sounds the Conch

This Week's History Forum: Professor Sir Woodville Marshall

 

Welcome to the Department of History and Philosophy's

 

HISTORY FORUM

 

on Friday, February 22, 2013

in the Arts Lecture Theatre (ALT)

[located in the Humanities Quadrangle, Cave Hill Campus, UWI]

 

Professor Sir Woodville Marshall

 

will present a paper entitled

 

"Making Space at Cave Hill: Cobbling Together a UWI Campus"

Eliza Fenwick (1766-1840): The Moral Dilemma of an Abolitionist Slave Owner

 

Obeah Histories

Visit http://obeahhistories.org if you want to research more about prosecutions for religious practices in the Caribbean.

 

Thousands of people in the Caribbean have been subject to prosecution for their religious and spiritual healing practice, since the first law against obeah was passed in Jamaica during slavery, until the recent past. As well as the obeah laws, which still exist in many Caribbean countries, there have also been laws against specific religious groups, including the Spiritual Baptist faith, which was outlawed for a substantial part of the twentieth century in Trinidad and Tobago, St. Vincent, and Grenada. Other people faced prosecution for independent religious and healing work under laws against practicing medicine without a license, vagrancy, and ‘night noises’, among others.

The Way of All Flesh by Adam Curtis

In 1951, an African-American woman died in Baltimore, America. She was called Henrietta Lacks. These are cells from her body. They were taken from her just before she died. They have been growing and multiplying ever since.

There are now billions of these cells in laboratories around the world. If massed together, they would weigh 400 times her original weight. These cells have transformed modern medicine, but they also became caught up in the politics of our age. They shape the policies of countries and of presidents. They even became involved in the cold war because scientists were convinced that in her cells lay the secret to how to conquer death.

“It was not like an ordinary cancer. This was different, this didn’t look like cancer. It was purple and it bled very easily on touching. I’ve never seen anything that looked like it and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything that looked like it since, so it was a very special different kind of, well, it turned out to be a tumor.” –Dr. Howard Jones, Gynecologist.

This Week's History Forum: The Saba-Barbados Connection

Welcome to the Department of History and Philosophy's

             HISTORY FORUM

Febbruary 8th at 4:30 pm

in the New Bruce St. John Room

[located in the Humanities Quadrangle]

Dr. Tara Inniss

will present a paper entitled:

 

"'American money... English money... and a few Dutch dollars': Migration, Identity and the Saba-Barbados Connection, 1860-1920"

 

ABSTRACT

In 2010, the island of Saba in the former Netherlands Antilles officially became closer politically to the Kingdom of the Netherlands when it became a special municipality. Although Dutch is the official language of the island, every local Saban speaks English almost exclusively.

 

The island’s cultural and economic connections to the English-speaking Caribbean date to the island’s permanent settlement of English-speaking colonists in 1665. Transferred between the English, French and Dutch, the island became officially part of the Dutch Crown in 1816. However, unlike other Dutch colonies which thrived as cosmopolitan freeports, Saba has retained most of its cultural, linguistic and economic ties with the ‘English Atlantic.’

 

During the 19^th and 20^th centuries, the small island of Saba developed connections to several English-speaking territories, including Barbados, in the era of maritime trade and travel. This paper explores some post-emancipation relationships between Saba and Barbados from 1860 to 1920. Using oral history interviews as well newspapers, genealogical and immigration records, this paper investigates connections between the Dutch Caribbean and the English-speaking Atlantic that shaped identities and built economies.

 

Sabans were some of the pre-eminent schooner captains in the post-emancipation interisland trade. Several captains, ship-owners and their families settled in Barbados, which was considered a major maritime-mercantile hub.  In addition to the economic reasons for re-location, Saban seafarers were also attracted to educational opportunities in the island, and especially English-language instruction. Helping to bolster Saba’s foundering economy in the early 20^th century, remittances and continued trade connections also assisted families. Although representing a very small percentage of Caribbean migrations over the period, the Saban migrations can help researchers to understand how economic motivations are often shaped by cultural identit(ies).

Carnival in Trinidad 1953

Carnival in Trinidad 1953

Carnival in Trinidad is a kaleidoscope of colors and sounds that seems to capture the very essence of the celebration. For historians, it is also a remarkable document of island traditions from a half century ago. Calypso expert Ray Funk has mined it to identify several famous mas bands—the costumed groups who join the parades—including Carnival designer Harold Sadenah’s Quo Vadis and steelband The Invaders seen dressed in full military regalia. Travelogue, historical record, and personal statement, Carnival in Trinidad remains a vibrant testimony to a still photographer’s mastery of the moving image.

BMHS Rum, Art and Heritage Tour