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A study of Bristol's elite in the period after emancipation, charting the changing fortunes of slavery-enriched families alongside the wider elite not all of which had been involved in the slavery economy.
Bristol occupies an important place in the history of Britain's involvement in transatlantic slavery, and families enriched by the slavery economy were significant members of the Bristol elite in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. However, research on slavery hitherto has concentrated on the slave trade and its abolition and on emancipation. The story of what happened next, after emancipation in the late 1830s, in the legacy stage of the slavery economy, has been largely neglected. This book, based on extensive original research, explores how fortunes accumulated from slavery survived its formal termination. It puts the slavery-enriched families into the narrative of Bristol across the entire nineteenth century and locates those families in the context of the wider, and changing, urban elite in the city. It shows that not all Bristol elite families were the beneficiaries of slavery and also that most families who benefitted from slavery were not that rich. Overall, the book contributes both to the literature on the slavery economy as it affected British cities and to urban history more generally.
Bristol occupies an important place in the history of Britain's involvement in transatlantic slavery, and families enriched by the slavery economy were significant members of the Bristol elite in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. However, research on slavery hitherto has concentrated on the slave trade and its abolition and on emancipation. The story of what happened next, after emancipation in the late 1830s, in the legacy stage of the slavery economy, has been largely neglected. This book, based on extensive original research, explores how fortunes accumulated from slavery survived its formal termination. It puts the slavery-enriched families into the narrative of Bristol across the entire nineteenth century and locates those families in the context of the wider, and changing, urban elite in the city. It shows that not all Bristol elite families were the beneficiaries of slavery and also that most families who benefitted from slavery were not that rich. Overall, the book contributes both to the literature on the slavery economy as it affected British cities and to urban history more generally.
Price: $130.00
Pages: 240
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc.
Imprint: Boydell Press
Publication Date:
March 9, 2027
Trim Size: 9.21 X 6.14 in
ISBN: 9781837655571
Format: Hardcover
BISACs:
HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / General, European history, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economic History, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Slavery, Economic history, Slavery and abolition of slavery
Peter Malpass is an Emeritus Professor of Housing and Urban Studies at the University of the West of England, Bristol. He is the author of The Making of Victorian Bristol (Boydell, 2019).
Preface and Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
1. Introduction
2. Bristol in a Changing World
3. The Mercantile Ascendancy
4. Governance and Political Power in Bristol before 1835
5. Under Pressure: The Bristol Elite in the 1830s
6. Family Strategies and Trajectories
7. The Newly Rich: Repopulating the Elite
8. Inside the Town Council: In Search of Leadership
9. The Practice of Philanthropy
10. Civic Philanthropy
11. Family Fortunes
Index
List of Illustrations
1. Introduction
2. Bristol in a Changing World
3. The Mercantile Ascendancy
4. Governance and Political Power in Bristol before 1835
5. Under Pressure: The Bristol Elite in the 1830s
6. Family Strategies and Trajectories
7. The Newly Rich: Repopulating the Elite
8. Inside the Town Council: In Search of Leadership
9. The Practice of Philanthropy
10. Civic Philanthropy
11. Family Fortunes
Index