Mary Prince
15 November 2021
Mary Prince lecture Week 10
1st testament of an enslaved women by the British colonies
1st book by a black female publish in the Britain.
Filled with horrific accusations against white people - high status and
influential white people
Some people view prince as a symbol of black resistance, important
member of the black literary cannon.
BUT others, more concerned with the search with an authentic voice,
find it a bit more difficult. Because of the way it was produced, who
produced it and what it was produced for.
No text exists independently of it's production, especially one by a
disenfranchised human being.
Abolitionists worked with Prince to publish text as a form of propaganda
Dictated to a young female abolitionist and edited by Thomas Pringle
We will never know how filtered and mediated her word are because of
this reason.
WHY IS SLAVERY NOT OFTEN TALKED ABOUT HERE IN BRITAIN?
Geography allows us to distance ourselves from the impact of slavery.
The Abolitionist movement tends to take over the majority of any
modern day discourse about Britain's role in slavery. The fixation of the
end of slavery (the abolitionist movement) hides the horrors of slavery
that pre-existed.
CONTEXTUAL INFO:
12.5 million Africans were shipped to the New World (10.7m survived
the journey)
Approx. 90% imported into Caribbean and South America
British shipped 3.1million between 1662-1807
West Indian plantations were much larger than North American
The slave trade ended in 1807 (in North America: 1808)
This wasn't due to the Philanthropic nature of the British people: the
abolitionist movement, slave rebellions, economics (the decline of
financial profitability).
, Slavery did not end until 1834, slave owners were paid compensation.
Followed by enforced apprenticeship (slavery but with a different title)
which lasted until 1838, emancipation in North America came in 1863.
£20 million of tax payer's money was paid to compensate Britain's
46,000 slave holders for the loss of their 'property'. The enslaved
received nothing. Modern equivalent = £17bn
Biggest bailout using public money in British history until the bailout of
the banks in 2009 - 40% of national budget. Wasn't paid off until 2015.
Beneficiaries: Father of Prime Minister William Gladstone was paid
£100,000 - about £80m. The families of George Orwell, Graham Greene,
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, David Cameron.
40% of owners living in the colonies were women (widows)
Iconography of slavery: must be begging for a freedom stolen from
them, must be half naked to show a raw uncivilised state, and they must
ask a question "Am I not a man and a brother? Not "I am a man and a
brother"
Authors of African descent who began publishing imaginative literature in
English in the late eighteenth century had to confront a collective and
racist text of themselves which Europeans had invented.
Gates, Jr., Henry Louis, (ed.), “Race”, Writing, and Difference, University of
Chicago Press, Chicago (1986)
The literary genre of auto-biographical writing was dominated by
western white male narratives, based on the view that each individual
has a unified and unique selfhood, also the expression of universal
human nature, was a concept that privileged a specific enlightenment
archetype of sovereign self-hood. This did not include subaltern peoples,
who largely fell outside the enlightenment definition of the universal.
Even though people campaigned for the abolition of slavery, it did not
mean that they did so due to beliefs of equality. It was often to avoid
moral or religious damnation and not because they thought that all
people are equal. Many abolitionists still held the view that they were
superior to black people.
The anti-slavery society was actually called "The society for the
Mitigation and gradual abolition of slavery throughout the British
dominions. Female abolitionists have criticised that the men "have
shown a great deal too much politeness" and take "Slow, cautious,
accommodating measures." And that their aim on gradual abolition was
"the masterpiece of Satanic policy", many called for "immediate not
15 November 2021
Mary Prince lecture Week 10
1st testament of an enslaved women by the British colonies
1st book by a black female publish in the Britain.
Filled with horrific accusations against white people - high status and
influential white people
Some people view prince as a symbol of black resistance, important
member of the black literary cannon.
BUT others, more concerned with the search with an authentic voice,
find it a bit more difficult. Because of the way it was produced, who
produced it and what it was produced for.
No text exists independently of it's production, especially one by a
disenfranchised human being.
Abolitionists worked with Prince to publish text as a form of propaganda
Dictated to a young female abolitionist and edited by Thomas Pringle
We will never know how filtered and mediated her word are because of
this reason.
WHY IS SLAVERY NOT OFTEN TALKED ABOUT HERE IN BRITAIN?
Geography allows us to distance ourselves from the impact of slavery.
The Abolitionist movement tends to take over the majority of any
modern day discourse about Britain's role in slavery. The fixation of the
end of slavery (the abolitionist movement) hides the horrors of slavery
that pre-existed.
CONTEXTUAL INFO:
12.5 million Africans were shipped to the New World (10.7m survived
the journey)
Approx. 90% imported into Caribbean and South America
British shipped 3.1million between 1662-1807
West Indian plantations were much larger than North American
The slave trade ended in 1807 (in North America: 1808)
This wasn't due to the Philanthropic nature of the British people: the
abolitionist movement, slave rebellions, economics (the decline of
financial profitability).
, Slavery did not end until 1834, slave owners were paid compensation.
Followed by enforced apprenticeship (slavery but with a different title)
which lasted until 1838, emancipation in North America came in 1863.
£20 million of tax payer's money was paid to compensate Britain's
46,000 slave holders for the loss of their 'property'. The enslaved
received nothing. Modern equivalent = £17bn
Biggest bailout using public money in British history until the bailout of
the banks in 2009 - 40% of national budget. Wasn't paid off until 2015.
Beneficiaries: Father of Prime Minister William Gladstone was paid
£100,000 - about £80m. The families of George Orwell, Graham Greene,
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, David Cameron.
40% of owners living in the colonies were women (widows)
Iconography of slavery: must be begging for a freedom stolen from
them, must be half naked to show a raw uncivilised state, and they must
ask a question "Am I not a man and a brother? Not "I am a man and a
brother"
Authors of African descent who began publishing imaginative literature in
English in the late eighteenth century had to confront a collective and
racist text of themselves which Europeans had invented.
Gates, Jr., Henry Louis, (ed.), “Race”, Writing, and Difference, University of
Chicago Press, Chicago (1986)
The literary genre of auto-biographical writing was dominated by
western white male narratives, based on the view that each individual
has a unified and unique selfhood, also the expression of universal
human nature, was a concept that privileged a specific enlightenment
archetype of sovereign self-hood. This did not include subaltern peoples,
who largely fell outside the enlightenment definition of the universal.
Even though people campaigned for the abolition of slavery, it did not
mean that they did so due to beliefs of equality. It was often to avoid
moral or religious damnation and not because they thought that all
people are equal. Many abolitionists still held the view that they were
superior to black people.
The anti-slavery society was actually called "The society for the
Mitigation and gradual abolition of slavery throughout the British
dominions. Female abolitionists have criticised that the men "have
shown a great deal too much politeness" and take "Slow, cautious,
accommodating measures." And that their aim on gradual abolition was
"the masterpiece of Satanic policy", many called for "immediate not
