Imperial careering and enslavement in the long eighteenth-century: the Bentinck family, 1710-1830s

Haggerty, Sheryllynne; Seymour, Susanne

Abstract

This paper examines the claims of Eric Williams and the more recent Legacies of British Slave-Ownership projects regarding the influence of enslavement in the building of Britain and its empire through a multi-generational study of a leading British elite family, the Bentincks. Using the concept of imperial careering, it charts how four men from this family not typically identified as enslavers or abolitionists were entangled with enslavement in Britain’s Western and Eastern empires. It concludes that the influence of enslavement was extensive and mainly exploitative, but involved losses as well as gains for these elite protagonists.

Citation

Haggerty, S., & Seymour, S. (2018). Imperial careering and enslavement in the long eighteenth-century: the Bentinck family, 1710-1830s. Slavery and Abolition, 39(4), 642-662. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144039X.2018.1429190

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 12, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Feb 2, 2018
• Publication Date: 2018
• Deposit Date: Jan 19, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 3, 2019
• Journal: Slavery and Abolition
• Print ISSN: 0144-039X
• Electronic ISSN: 1743-9523
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 39
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 642-662
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0144039X.2018.1429190
• Keywords: Imperial Careering, Slavery, Family, Eighteenth Century, Empire
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/908497
• Publisher URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/AmFUIhKetXeKk9sSVwtz/full
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Slavery and Abolition on 2 Feb 2018, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/0144039X.2018.1429190.
• Contract Date: Jan 19, 2018