Book Week Scotland 2022: The Glasgow Sugar Aristocracy:Scotland & Caribbean Slavery with Dr S Mullen
Wednesday 16 November, 2022 at 6 p.m.
Dr Stephen Mullen discusses his new book, The Glasgow Sugar Aristocracy: Scotland and Caribbean Slavery, 1775–1838.
The Mitchell Library, North Street, Glasgow G3 7DN
Dr Stephen Mullen (University of Glasgow) will be at the Mitchell Library to discuss his new book The Glasgow Sugar Aristocracy: Scotland and Caribbean Slavery, 1775–1838 which assesses the size and nature of Caribbean slavery’s economic impact in British society.
The Glasgow Sugar Aristocracy, a grouping of West India merchants and planters, became active before the emancipation of chattel slavery in the British West Indies in 1834. Many acquired nationally significant fortunes, and their investments percolated into the Scottish economy and wider society. At its core, the book traces the development of merchant capital and poses several interrelated questions during an era of rapid transformation, namely, what impact the private investments of West India merchants and colonial adventurers had on metropolitan society and the economy, as well as the wider effects of such commerce on industrial and agricultural development.
The book also examines the fortunes of temporary Scottish economic migrants who travelled to some of the wealthiest of the Caribbean islands, presenting the first large-scale survey of repatriated slavery fortunes via case studies of Scots in Jamaica, Grenada and Trinidad before emancipation in 1834. It therefore takes a new approach to illuminate the world of individuals who acquired West India fortunes and ultimately explores, in an Atlantic frame, the interconnections between the colonies and metropole in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
This section: Book Week Scotland, Books, Talks, Poetry and Creative Writing Events, Events, Fairs, Festivals and Fundraisers, Free Events
Filed under: Book Week Scotland, Books, Talks, Poetry and Creative Writing Events, Events, Fairs, Festivals and Fundraisers, Free Events
Prevous page or post | Next page or post
Written by : Pat Byrne
Related Pages
- Govanhill Book Festival 2026
- Palestinian Film Festival – Lochinver Scottish Highlands
- Pints of Knowledge, Glasgow. ‘Big Songs Small Rooms’
- Maryhill Festival 2026
- Book Launch: A Thing So Delicate: The Hidden Voices of Scotland’s Mass Concrete Viaducts. By Moira McPartlin and Colin Baird
- The Bookmonger – Nicola Meighan presents An Evening with Damian Barr
- Spiral Scratch – Kevin Gilday New Material plus Open Mic
- Off the Beatson Track Fundraiser
- Govan International Festival and Carnival Parade
- Bangla Mela, Celebrating Commonwealth Games 2026
- All Elements Scottish Hip Hop Jam 2026
- Ann MacKinnon, Scottish Writers Centre
- tell it slant at Locavore
- Commonwealth Community Festival
- Arepas for Venezuela – Fundraiser
- Scottish Writers Centre Speakeasy The Griffin
- Voices of the Clyde
- Watershed Festival at The Briggait
- Soulguided Soundbath at Arlington Baths
- Wellspring – Tiles and Tales
