Richard Huzzey in the Department of History shared his research on slavery and liberty in the British Empire on BBC Radio 4 as part of the British Liberalism: The Grand Tour series. He joined presenter Anne McElvoy on programmes scheduled for broadcast on Wednesday and Thursday, 9 and 10 December, to talk about the abolitionist, Thomas Clarkson, and philosopher, John Stuart Mill.
Recording for the programme at Liverpool’s International Slavery Museum and the Pier Head, Richard explained how campaigner Thomas Clarkson toured the country to gather evidence and rally support against the slave trade. In Liverpool, he saw shackles openly sold in shop windows and sought witnesses to testify to Parliament on the barbaric treatment of enslaved Africans. This led to a group of sailors confronting him on the Pier Head, during which he feared for his life. In the Slavery Museum, Anne and Richard discussed Clarkson’s appeal to British sympathies and what freedom meant to him.
Richard, the author of Freedom Burning: Anti-Slavery and Empire in Victorian Britain, also shared work he has undertaken on the fate of anti-slavery passions after the end of slavery. John Stuart Mill led a group of distinguished liberal intellectuals in criticising the brutal suppression of a rebellion in Morant Bay, Jamaica, in 1865. However, the programme will show how Mill’s sympathy for more than 300 black subjects killed by colonial authorities was tempered by his own commitment to racial hierarchy; he objected to government breaches of the law more than he sympathised with resistance by Jamaicans. Richard also writes about the rebellion and reactions to it in the December issue of BBC History Magazine.
Listen to the programmes in their original 15-minute versions or hear an omnibus edition on i-player.