Britain’s Slave Traders: A Forgotten History – William Pettigrew

William Pettigrew led a team of nine historians in a project to unearth every known investor in Britain’s transatlantic slave trade. Drawing on what is now known of 13,000 individuals, he has written a new version of Britain’s history which transforms our understanding of who these traffickers were and reveals – for the first time – the impact they had on the nation’s development. They were plumbers as well as politicians, instrument-makers as well as monarchs, women and immigrants alongside aristocrats and merchants; playwrights, poets and artists, too. They were a tiny minority but their wealth, power and appetite for risk influenced not just Britain’s economy but its politics, science, arts and institutions.

Come and find out more from William!

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