Slavery, the Industrial Revolution, and Public History - Session 1 – History Writing

The Centre for Empire and Postcolonial Studies hosted an online workshop on ‘Slavery, the Industrial Revolution, and Public History’.

The relationship between slavery and the Industrial Revolution has long been a source of historical debate. Since the publication of Eric Williams’s landmark study Capitalism and Slavery (1944), scholars have argued over the connection between the two. More recently, Pat Hudson and Maxine Berg published Slavery, Capitalism and the Industrial Revolution (2023). Their work reignited discussions at a moment when national history has become increasingly contested in relation to empire. As the links between the Industrial Revolution and slavery have been highlighted by historians, how has this work impacted on the public representation of the past? This workshop explored some of the latest research into slavery and the Industrial Revolution. It considered how these interwoven histories have been interpreted within heritage and museum sites. It also looked at how this material has translated into new approaches to teaching in the classroom.