Slavery and the British Country House: Mapping Current Research

Saturday 21 November 2009

New Academic Building, London School of Economics
54 Lincolns Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3LJ

As part of the legacy of the 2007 Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, English Heritage, the National Trust and the University of the West of England (UWE) are jointly sponsoring this one-day conference exploring the links between the country house in Britain and the Atlantic slave trade.

Building on important new research in this area, this conference will promote wider public understanding of the many ways in which the fortunes of the landed elite and their country houses were intertwined with slavery and the slave trade.

Papers will include:

• The view from Yorkshire, Harewood House and After - James Walvin (University of York)
• St. Vincents topography and links with British country house owners - Simon D. Smith (University of Hull)
• Liverpool merchants and their Rural Retreats - Jane Longmore (Southampton Solent University)
• Normanton Hall and Gilbert Heathcote, merchant and slaver of empire - Nuala Zahedieh (University of Edinburgh)
• Bristol and Nevis: changing places - Roger Leech (University of Southampton)
• Using Slave Compensation Records to measure rentier slave-ownership in Britain - Nick Draper (UCL)
• Contesting the political legacy of slavery in Britains country houses - Caroline Bressey (UCL) 
• Slavery at the Codrington Sites in England and the West Indies, - Natalie Zacek (Manchester University)
• The Stately Homes of Bexley and their hidden links to the East and West Indies - Cliff Pereira (Royal Geographical Society)
• The Atlantic trade and the 18th century fashion for landscape tourism - Victoria Perry (UCL)
• Property - attitudes to slaves, land and trade Susanne Seymour & Sheryllynne Haggerty (University of Nottingham)
• Atlantic slavery and classical culture at Marble Hill and Northington Grange - Laurence Brown (Manchester University)
• Slavery and Country Houses in the West of England Madge Dresser (UWE)

Early booking is recommended to avoid disappointment

For further details contact Ros Tatham: Telephone: 020 7973 3351; Email: slavery@english-heritage.org.uk

English Heritage; 1 Waterhouse Square; 138-142 Holborn; London EC1N 2ST