The Unnatural Trade | Naturalists and the Slave Trade

Description

How did late 18th C British abolitionists assess the slave trade & British colonial slavery as unnatural, a "dread perversion" of nature?

In this talk, Brycchan Carey shows that before the mid-eighteenth century, natural histories by naturalists such as Richard Ligon, Hans Sloane, and Griffith Hughes were a primary source of information about slavery for British and colonial readers. They were often ambivalent toward slavery, but they increasingly adopted a proslavery stance to accommodate the needs of colonists by representing slavery as a "natural" phenomenon. From the mid-eighteenth century onwards, abolitionists such as Anthony Benezet, Thomas Clarkson, and Olaudah Equiano discovered and adapted these natural histories and many naturalists became associated with the antislavery movement. By the end of the eighteenth-century, Carey shows, abolitionists had built a compelling case that slavery was unnatural and should be abolished, but in so doing they inadvertently encouraged the exploitation of African and Caribbean natural resources instead.

Brycchan Carey is the Wolfson Professor of Literature, Culture, and History at Northumbria University. He is the author of numerous books and articles on topics such as slavery, abolition, animal studies, and natural history, including his most recent book, The Unnatural Trade: Slavery, Abolition, and Environmental Writing, 1650-1807, from which this talk is taken.

The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception (paid bar is available) in the library upstairs.

Date

Location

The Linnean Society
Burlington House
Piccadilly
London
W1J 0BF

Prices

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Concessions: £10.46

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