About This Event
How did late eighteenth-century British abolitionists come to view the slave trade and British colonial slavery as unnatural, a "dread perversion" of nature?
Join Brycchan Carey, author ofThe Unnatural Trade - Slavery, Abolition, and Environmental Writing, 1650-1807, atYork Georgian Festival, as he focuses on slavery in the Americas, and the Caribbean in particular, alongside travellers' accounts of West Africa.
Before the mid-eighteenth century, natural histories were a primary source of information about slavery for British and colonial readers. Increasingly they adopted a pro-slavery stance to accommodate the needs of planters by representing slavery as a "natural" phenomenon.
However, from the mid-eighteenth century, abolitionists adapted the natural history form to their own writings, and many naturalists became associated with the antislavery movement.
Carey draws on descriptions of slavery and the slave trade created by naturalists and other travellers with an interest in natural history, showing how these were used by abolitionists to build a compelling case that slavery was “unnatural”, a case popularised by abolitionist poets.
Dates: 10th Aug 26, 5:30pm - 6:30pm
Categories: Festivals, Tours & Guides, Entertainment, Family Friendly, Great Outdoors
Book tickets at the event website.
Contact: Phone: 01904 553663, Email: mansionhouse@york.gov.uk