Africans in East Anglia, 1467-1833

Author:

Maguire, Richard, 1966-

Format:

Book

Language:

English

Imprint:

Woodbridge, Suffolk : The Boydell Press, 2021 and ©2021

Subject:

Africans - England - East Anglia - History - To 1500
Africans - England - East Anglia - History - 16th century
Africans - England - East Anglia - History - 17th century
Africans - England - East Anglia - History - 18th century
Africans - England - East Anglia - History - 19th century
Slavery - Great Britain - History

ISBN:

9781783276332 and 1783276339

Series:

Studies in early modern cultural, political and social history

Description:

x, 285 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Bibliographic Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-267) and index

Contents:

Introduction : a social history of Africans in early modern Norfolk and Suffolk -- Identifying the African population in early modern Norfolk and Suffolk -- Beginnings : the establishment of the African population, 1467-1599 -- 'Strangers', 'foreigners', and 'slavery' -- The seventeenth century : the early shadow of transatlantic slavery -- The African population, 1600-99 -- Eighteenth-century links to the Atlantic economy -- Eighteenth-century African lives -- The 'three African youths', a gentleman, and some rioters -- Epilogue : reconsidering the social history of Africans in Norfolk and Suffolk -- Appendix A : the African and Asian population identified in Norfolk and Suffolk, 1467-1833 -- Appendix B : the surname 'Blackamore', 1500-1800 -- Appendix C : plantation ownership in Norfolk and Suffolk, 1650-1833

Summary:

"What were the lives of Africans in provincial England like during the early modern period? How, where, and when did they arrive in rural counties? How were they perceived by their contemporaries? This book examines the population of Africans in Norfolk and Suffolk from 1467, the date of the first documented reference to an African in the region, to 1833, when Parliament voted to abolish slavery in the British Empire. It uncovers the complexity of these Africans' historical experience, considering the interaction of local custom, class structure, tradition, memory, and the gradual impact of the Atlantic slaving economy. Richard C. Maguire proposes that the initial regional response to arriving Africans during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was not defined exclusively by ideas relating to skin colour, but rather by local understandings of religious status, class position, ideas about freedom and bondage, and immediate local circumstances. Arriving Africans were able to join the region's working population through baptism, marriage, parenthood, and work. This manner of response to Africans was challenged as local merchants and gentry begin doing business with the slaving economy from the mid-seventeenth century onwards. Although the racialised ideas underpinning Atlantic slavery changed the social circumstances of Africans in the region, the book suggests that they did not completely displace older, more inclusive, ideas in working communities"-- Back cover

Collection:

BGC Monograph Stacks

Call Number:

DA670.E14 M34 2021

Available

c.1