Bath and the Slave Trade
Georgian Bath was built largely due to the British Slave Trade. We know that our building and collections have strong connections with this awful period in history and we do not hide it. It is a crucial part of our narrative when people visit and contributes to the wider context of the World Heritage City of Bath.
We have listed some suggestions for further reading and research about the history of slavery and its legacies in Bath below
Our publications:
- Elegance and pleasure in Georgian England owed much to the British slave trade. Read more about how this links to objects from our collections here – Elegance and Exploitation: Luxury Goods and the Slave Trade
- The history of the Beckford family is a tale of social ambition, political manoeuvrings and inexhaustible collecting all made possible by a huge family fortune built on the back of the slave trade. Read more about it here – Beckford and the Slave Trade: The Legacy of the Beckford Family and the Slave Trade
Further research:
- Watch ‘Civilisations Stories’ Episode 10 of 11: The Remains of Slavery – In this West Country addition of the BBC series, Brisol and Bath’s ties to the slave trade are explored, including a feature at one of our museums, Beckford’s Tower.
- Dr Amy Frost (2007). Big Spenders: The Beckford’s and Slavery. http://www.bbc.co.uk/wiltshire/content/articles/2007/03/06/abolition_fonthill_abbey_feature.shtml#:~:text=The%20tale%20of%20the%20Beckford,educated%2C%20cultured%20and%20civilised%20Gentleman.
- Dr Amy Frost (2018). The Beckford Era. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/j.ctv1xz0t0.8.pdf
- John R. Tyson (2011). Lady Huntingdon, Religion and Race. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c213/8bbd2a2064bdf5d7621ceff0f4a98ce4c57d.pdf
- Jaqueline Burrows (2016). Bath and the Slave Trade. https://slaverybathhistory.wordpress.com/
- Roger Holly (2016). The Anti Slavery Movement in Bath. http://historyofbath.org/images/BathHistory/Vol%2014%20-%2006.%20Holly%20-%20The%20Anti%20Slavery%20Movement%20in%20Bath.pdf
- B&NES (2018). A View from the Crescent. https://no1royalcrescent.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/A-View-from-the-Crescent-Exhibition-panels.pdf
- BBC2 (2005). The Slavery Business – Programme 1: Sugar Dynasty. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTReDD0RaPs
- BBC1 (2018). The Remains of Slavery. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6knkfo
- Bristol Libraries (2009). Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation: A Reading List. https://www.bristol.gov.uk/documents/20182/34312/Slavery,%20abolition%20and%20emancipation%20reading%20list_0.pdf/8afcb9c7-e118-4a80-86cb-faeb2a410408
- Pip Jones & Rita Youseph (1994). The Black Population of Bristol in the 18th Century. http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/History/bristolrecordsociety/publications/bha084.pdf
- David Richardson (1985). The Bristol Slave Traders: A Collective Portrait. http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/History/bristolrecordsociety/publications/bha060.pdf
- Bristol, Africa, and the Eighteenth-Century Slave Trade to America: Vol. 4 The Final Years 1770-1807. http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/History/bristolrecordsociety/publications/brs47.pdf
- Anuradha Gobin (2011). Constructing a Picturesque Landscape: Picturing Sugar Plantations in the Eighteenth-Century British West Indies. https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1014&context=hemisphere
- Historic England (2013). Slavery and the British Country House. https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/slavery-and-british-country-house/slavery-british-country-house-web/