Publications: History

Black Ivory, Slavery in the British Empire
James Walvin Second Edition, 2001 Blackwell Publishing
A very readable overview of the British involvement in the slave trade – strong on capture, middle passage and plantation life, not as much on abolition and the legacies. An excellent introduction to those without a great deal of prior knowledge.

Bury The Chains, The British struggle to abolish slavery
Adam Hochschild, 2005, Pan Books
Paints a very visual picture of the social and political climate leading to abolition in Britain, including colourful descriptions of key players such as Clarkson, Wilberforce etc. Enjoyable read presuming some existing knowledge.

Out of slavery, Learning about the history of black British Caribbean people
Nadia Foster, 2004, Redcliffe Publishing
A useful overview of the transatlantic slave trade and black presence in Britain, including the Windrush generation. Could be read by older/more able pupils.

The Longman Companion to Slavery, Emancipation and Civil Rights
Harry Harmer, 2001, Pearson Education Limited
A useful reference book, mainly organized as a list of events by date, and covering the post-slavery and Civil Rights movements well, especially from an American perspective.

Rough Crossings, Britain, The Slaves and the American Revolution
Simon Schama, 2005, BBC Books
A good general reference book covering a wide range of case studies.

The Shackled Continent – Africa’s Past, Present and future
Robert Guest, 2005, Macmillan
An understanding Africa’s political & economic situation

Voices from Slavery, 100 Authentic Slave Narratives
Norman Yetman, 2000, Dover Publications
First hand stories and incidents that detail life on the plantations.

The Classic Slave Narratives
Henry Louis Gates, editor, 2002, Signet Classic
Readable accounts as written by Equiano, Mary Prince, Fredrick Douglass, and the Life of a Slave girl.

Unchained Memories, readings from the Slave Narratives
Henry Louis Gates, editor, 2002, AOL Time Warner
Excellent selection of’first person’ information and experiences.

The Black Jacobins
C L R James, 2001, Penguin
Covers Toussaint L’Ouverture and the Saint Domingue revolution.

Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Bondswoman of Olden Time, with a History of Her Labors and Correspondence Drawn from Her Book of Life
N I Painter, editor, 1998, Penguin
Excellent case study, abolition and feminism.

The Slave Trade: The History of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1440 - 1870
Hugh Thomas, 1997 Macmillan
An incredibly thorough reference book – but not a quick read.

An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa
Alexander Falconbridge, reprinted 1973, New York
Falconbridge’s account describes the conditions he had witnessed in West Africa. Considered the first piece of published abolitionist propaganda, it was published by the London Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1788.

Publications: Fiction

Beloved
Toni Morrison, 2000, Palgrave Macmillan
A novel which explores slavery and its aftermath, set in the mid-nineteenth century.

Roots
Alex Haley, 1994, Vintage
An account of Haley’s own search for his ancestral roots.

Sacred Hunger
Barry Unsworth, 1993, Penguin Books Ltd
Awarded the 1992 Booker Prize, this is a story of an eighteenth-century slave ship.

Cambridge
Caryl Phillips, 2000, Faber and Faber
Set in the era between the abolition of slavery and the emancipation of the slaves, the novel centres around Emily Cartwright, an Englishwoman sent to visit her father’s plantation in the West Indies, and Cambridge, a plantation slave.

The Atlantic Sound
Caryl Phillips, 2001, Vintage
An exploration of three cities involved in the slave trade: Liverpool, Elmina, and Charleston.

A Respectable Trade
Philippa Gregory, 1996, HarperCollins
Set in eighteenth-century Bristol, the novel follows Frances - a well-connected wife of a dockside trader - as she becomes emotionally involved with the trade of slaves.

Ama: A Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade
Manu Herbstein, 2005, Picador Africa
A novel charting the life of an enslaved man in the eighteenth century.