British Imperial History, 1600-1900

This treatise, written by political economist and philosopher Charles Davenant, examines the operations of the captive trade from Africa to British and Spanish colonies in the Americas. Davenant argues for the slave trade’s centrality to the British imperial economy.

This collection of public letters addressed to Thomas Fowell Buxton (a prominent abolitionist in Britain) endeavors to illuminate both the conditions of slavery in British India and consider its legal validity.

These series of speeches argues for the cause of abolition across the British empire, including British India.

Political and personal correspondence of William Wilberforce (1759-1833), member of the House of Commons. Many letters relate to his leadership in the movement for Britain's abolition of the slave trade.

James Carmichael Smyth was the royal governor of the Bahamas (1829-1833) and then British Guiana (1833-1838). This collection of Smyth family correspondence and diaries includes discussions of Smyth’s relationships with planters, enslaved African laborers, and free Black people in the Bahamas.

Anthony Musgrave (1828-1888) was an administrator and governor of multiple British colonies in the Caribbean, Canada, and Australia. This collection includes his professional and personal papers along with those of his wife, Jeanie Lucinda (Field) Musgrave (1833-1920) and Jeanie’s father, David Dudley Field (1805-1894) who was a lawyer. Most of Musgrave’s papers in this collection pertain to the administration of various colonial governments, particularly Jamaica. The Jamaican materials encompass the period from 1877-1883.

Ballard's Valley and Berry Hill Penn were plantations in St. Mary's Parish, Jamaica. The records prior to 1837 document plantation operations and finances, and include details on enslaved persons and apprentices at the two plantations. Later papers include letters from managers of the estate to the owners describing crop conditions, potential land sales and leases, the end of the apprenticeship system in 1838, the importation of Chinese laborers in 1846, sugar traders' reaction to the repeal of the corn laws in that year, and plans for the erection of a Church of England chapel in 1848.

Stephen Fuller was the official British agent in Jamaica from 1765-1796. This collection correspondence, letterpress books, and other papers, chiefly from the last decade of his tenure on the island. Among other political issues, the documents include discussions of the slave trade in the Caribbean and the Wilberforce movement for its abolition (which Fuller opposed).

Collection consists of the financial records of a voyage of the CHRISTOPHER, from Liverpool to the Congo River region of Africa. From there it travelled to the West Indies.

Collection consists almost entirely of photocopies of documents originally belonging to James Rogers, Bristol, England, a merchant, ship owner, and slave trader. The material, dating from 1768-1794, largely consists of incoming correspondence, bills of sale, receipts, and other items related to ships' voyages and the slave trade.