Feature
Richard Maguire: Norfolk, Suffolk And The Slave Trade
About this feature
In this Community Chest programme, Dominik speaks with Richard Maguire about the transatlantic slave trade and its specific links to East Anglia. The conversation explores the economic drivers of slavery, the creation of racism as a justificatory mechanism, and the strategic nature of the 1831 Jamaican rebellion. Maguire also details the regional connections of Norfolk and Suffolk, including slave ships from Kings Lynn and the integration of Africans into local villages during the 1700s.
In this Community Chest programme, Dominik speaks with Richard Maguire about the transatlantic slave trade and its specific links to East Anglia. Maguire describes the trade as the largest forced migration in human history and discusses how racism was created as a justificatory mechanism by white slave owners, later reinforced by 19th-century pseudo-sciences like phrenology. The conversation covers the intellectual agency of enslaved people, such as Francis Williams' Latin poetry and the strategic nature of the 1831 Jamaican rebellion. Maguire also highlights the regional connections of Norfolk and Suffolk, noting the presence of plantation owners, slave ships from Kings Lynn, and the integration of Africans into local villages during the 1700s.
Topics
- The history and geography of the transatlantic slave trade
- African agency and the nature of African civilizations during the slave trade
- The etymology of the word 'slave' and its connection to Slavic people
- The origins and function of racism in the transatlantic slave trade
- Agency and intellectual life of enslaved people
- Integration of Africans in mainland Britain (Norfolk and Suffolk)
- The evolution and justification of racism post-abolition
- Regional involvement of East Anglia in the transatlantic slave trade
- The integration of black history into general British history
Participants
- Dominik
- Richard Maguire
Listen · selected clips
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Richard Maguire: How Research Into Norfolk And Suffolk's Slave-Trade Links Began
Community Chest · Spoken extract
Historian Richard Maguire explains that in 2007 the Norfolk Record Office, the Racial Equality Council and the Museums and Archaeology Service won Heritage Lottery funding, tied to the 200th anniversary of abolition, to see whether there was anything to find in Norfolk and Suffolk.
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Passages from the recording
Text from the recording. These passages are not linked to a playable clip.
Of the effects of transatlantic slavery, it's the largest forced migration in human history. And before, for example, say 1820, I think—and don't quote me on these exact numbers—but something like.
That white slave owners and the slave owning classes and the people making money from this justify it is by by racism, and you create an idea of race that is the white person is is is the exemplar of of what should be human, and therefore.
Black history, we've got women's history. We've because if you do that, you almost you run. You need it at certain points to drive the debate forward, but at the same time, you have to make sure that you integrate it back in. Otherwise, lots of people just ignore it and say, "Well, no, I'm actually just going to think about you know the great, great British."