When Cotton Mather published The Negro Christianized in 1706, his message went beyond a call to spiritual duty. It was also a calculated appeal to the interests of slaveholders. He argued that introducing Christianity to enslaved servants would not...
In 18th-century Liverpool, the docks bustled with ships and merchants chasing wealth, but much of that fortune was built on the lives and suffering of thousands of enslaved Africans who were treated as mere cargo. One of the men...
In March 1795, a violent rebellion erupted in Grenada, marking one of the most significant uprisings against British colonial rule in the Caribbean. At the center of the revolt was Julien Fédon, a free biracial French-speaking planter inspired by...
George Whitefield is remembered as one of the most influential preachers of the 18th century. A co-founder of Methodism alongside John and Charles Wesley and a major force in the First Great Awakening, Whitefield’s legacy is often told as...
In the 1780s, Alexander Falconbridge, a British surgeon, made several voyages aboard slave ships along the West African coast. Initially employed to care for the crew and captives, Falconbridge later turned into one of the most effective voices against...
In 1834, when the British Empire officially abolished slavery, the government organized what would become one of the largest transfers of wealth to private individuals in history. Yet, none of this money went to the people who had endured...
In the brutal world of slavery, where whips tore skin and families were auctioned, and bred like cattle, the most powerful weapon wasn’t always the lash, it was the Bible. Through sermons, laws, and redacted scripture, Christianity which was...
Cesar Picton was a formerly enslaved African child, taken from Senegambia in West Africa and gifted to a British politician. He rose to become a wealthy coal merchant and property owner in 18th- and 19th-century England, defying the odds...
George Case was a British slave trader, businessman, and politician who played a key role in Liverpool’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. He was responsible for at least 109 slave voyages, transporting thousands of enslaved Africans to the...
Thomas Thistlewood was an English slave owner, planter, and diarist who spent most of his life in colonial Jamaica. Known for his extreme brutality, Thistlewood thoroughly documented his life in a 14,000-page diary, detailing the horrific abuse he inflicted...
