Moya and Kris Manjapra discuss his book Black Ghost of Empire, a revelatory historical indictment of the long afterlife of slavery in the Atlantic world.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A Free Town

Nov 28th, 2023 34m 7s

As abolitionist campaigns gained traction in the late 1700s, the population of formerly enslaved people grew. Those who had been enslaved in the British colonies were ‘freed’ - at first in dribs and drabs, then all at once via two landmark piec

Think of the Children

Nov 21st, 2023 41m 20s

At the height of the British slave trade, there were no cameras to capture the experiences of the children who found themselves forced into enslavement. There are not even exact numbers for how many youths were sucked into the system - estimate

Abolition, Now part 2

Nov 14th, 2023 25m 34s

In the last episode, ‘Abolition, Now part 1’, I was talking with Historian Diana Patton about the real timeline of Aboliton and what Abolition really meant for those previously enslaved. Towards the end of the episode we began speaking about A

Abolition, Now part 1

Nov 7th, 2023 29m 47s

Most people know the basics of this moment. Josiah Wedgewood made some pottery, William Wilberforce made some speeches, John Newton wrote Amazing Grace, and boom! Britain’s narrative arc of national moral redemption was complete and slavery was

A Tale of Two Pews

Oct 31st, 2023 35m 23s

In southwest London, there is an area that plays an outsized role in British history. Today, if you walk through Clapham, you will be greeted by formerly grand black and white manor houses, now playing home to the likes of popular coffee chains

The Colony's Colony

Oct 23rd, 2023 39m 35s

Like Scotland, Ireland was another notch on England’s colonial bedpost, ruled from England continuously since the Tudors re-established the Kingdom of Ireland in the 16th century and made sure it was subordinate to English political authority.

Bonus

Introducing Physical Capital: Swimming

Oct 17th, 2023 18m 9s

Why do we swim? It’s not new, we’ve been swimming for 10,000 years… apparently. But why? We don’t live in the water and so what draws us to it? In this first episode of the podcast we explore the history of humans in the water to get an ide

In The Ring

Oct 16th, 2023 35m 59s

I love fitness. I love sports. I go to the gym, I walk, I run, I cycle. In my youth, I played team games. And everyone said I was good at sports because of my heritage. My Jamaican ancestry. As a child, this confused me - my white British mothe

Everyday People

Oct 9th, 2023 32m 41s

In this episode we’re venturing onto the bustling city streets of 18 century London, trying to uncover the traces of the Black individuals who became part of the working class communities – and sometimes elite society – of the British capital,

In Absentia

Oct 2nd, 2023 27m 22s

In the last episode, we looked at the women in Jamaica who owned slaves, both British colonists and the formerly enslaved women who codified their freedom through subjugating others.But there were also the women who didn’t stay, ones who neve

GIRLBOSSES

Sep 25th, 2023 42m 32s

Women made up 40% of slaveowners across the Caribbean – and although historians have had to dig even harder to pull together a picture of their lives, it’s out there.Featuring Assistant Professor of Atlantic World History at Yale and US Col

The Dis-carded

Sep 18th, 2023 36m 21s

At the centre of the system of chattel slavery, was the body. Not the mind, not the soul but the physical vessel necessary to carry out backbreaking labour. And break backs it did...Featuring historian of the Caribbean and the Atlantic, Ste

Hippocrits

Sep 11th, 2023 33m 20s

The Hippocratic Oath isn’t universal. But in the 18th century, the Oath began to be more widely used in medical schools across the British Empire and Europe. The Enlightenment was pushing medical developments along at a fast lick. But concurren

Inventing Race

Sep 4th, 2023 38m 51s

Human civilization only began about 6,000 years ago. As author Emma Dabiri writes in her 2021 book, cheekily titled ‘What White People Can Do Next’, in the grand scheme of things, human beings are babies. A speck on the face of time and space.

Winners and Losers

Mar 22nd, 2022 34m 56s

We’re back to a well-trodden theme: following the money to understand how Scotland’s national development was shaped by the slave trade – and who the winners and losers were among the people who were trying to profit from enslavement.Featurin

Bairns

Mar 15th, 2022 35m 49s

In the first of our episodes spotlighting Scotland’s slaving history, we went big and broad. Now it’s time to get personal, to uncover the individual stories which, pieced together, can paint a picture of how the lives of Scottish migrants and

Taking the High Ground

Mar 8th, 2022 35m 22s

When we talk about the ‘British’ Empire and the ‘British’ slave trade, it’s easy to forget that England – although the central seat of power – was not the only country involved. And for the next three episodes, we’re going to turn our attention

Origin Stories part 2

Mar 1st, 2022 34m 5s

In part 1 of Origin Stories, we explored the dominant narratives around the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade. But within every accepted history are a multitude of stories, interpretations, and conflicting ‘truths’. In this episode, we

Origin Stories part 1

Feb 22nd, 2022 35m 10s

Before the 400-odd years of the triangular trade, the plantations, the whips, the Sunday markets, the racial science. What were the first stirrings of an industry that we now understand as the pinnacle of inhumanity, but in the 1600s seemed the

In The Middle

Feb 8th, 2022 35m 40s

The journey of the Middle Passage is one of the most evocative images of slavery, taught in schools as an example of brutality. It was the sea voyage of no return. In this episode, we discover the realities of this horrific journey and what leg

All Aboard

Feb 1st, 2022 34m 56s

When Britain’s railways are placed within the context of the empire they helped to maintain, they are framed as one of the only ‘good’ legacies of imperialism. In this episode, we focus on the original Great Western Railway and how it's linked

Right of Way

Jan 25th, 2022 35m 13s

The image of ‘England’s green and pleasant land’ is one that has endured for centuries, but is this land really for everyone?Featuring PHD Student Annabelle Gilmore and Maxwell Ayamber PHD Student and founder and Project Coordinator of Shef

Royally Flush part 2

Jan 18th, 2022 31m 50s

Did the Slave rebellions play a part in the British Monarchy's stance on abolition?Featuring author and associate professor of History at Virginia Commonwealth University, Brooke Newman.The full episode transcript can be found here.CREDITS

Royally Flush part 1

Jan 11th, 2022 31m 6s

The British monarchy is one of the oldest and most resilient in the world. In this episode, we explore their links with the slave trade and just how involved they were.Featuring author and associate professor of history at Virginia Commonweal