Black Ivory: Slavery in the British Empire

by James Walvin

The terrible story of African slavery in the British colonies of the West Indies and North America is told with clarity and compassion in this classic history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

James Walvin taught for many years at the University of York where he is now Professor of History Emeritus. He also held visiting positions in the Caribbean, the U.S.A. and Australia. He won the prestigious Martin Luther King Memorial Prize for his book Black and White, and has published widely on the history of slavery and the slave trade. His book The People's Game was a pioneering study of the history of football and remains in print thirty years after its first publication.

Reviews

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, not sure if you're supposed to "really like" a book about something like slavery, but it was a damned good history book. Had to read it for my British Empire class, and it was the best of the bunch. Actually well-written and interesting.

[David Smith]

I have not read this book. However, if Mr. (I cannot bring myself to give him the honorific of Doctor since his bona fides are either unmerited or eroded beyond recognition) Walvin's previous outings in "history" bear the same level of scholarly accuracy as his lastest on the famous hymn "Amazing Grace", I should advise readers to save their time and money and read a Wikipedia summary of any subject upon which Mr. Walvin might share his thoughts as it will likely be more accurate than Mr. Walvin.
To wit: In his recent book on John Newton's famous hymn, he says of the famous evangelist D.L. Moody, "Throughout, Moody portrayed Christ himself as a sinner, a person with whom armies of ordinary people could identify. If Christ could be saved, so too could the humble and ordinary people in the audience. Salvation was there for all." If Mr. Walvin honestly made such a claim about Moody's preaching, he is so wildly mistaken that any other claims he makes, up to and including his own name, should be suspect. To suggest that an orthodox Christian evangelist would depart so radically from such a fundamental tenet of Christian belief, that Christ was a sinner saved (saved by whom, I wonder? certainly not the promised Messiah, which, I feel compelled to point out, is in fact a translation of Christ), and apparently to provide no concrete evidence for such a seismic assertion, indicates that Mr. Walvin has disgraced himself as a scholar and historian and should consider writing fiction since it will more satisfyingly suit his penchant to invent falsehoods with reckless abandon. And will eliminate any poor dupe possibly mistaking any claims he makes as having a modicum of veracity. (This WSJ review mentions the startling claim: https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/book...)
Alan Jacobs also records other pretty basic errors that any English scholar (not a scholar of England but an English-born scholar) should know about English Christian history, like the practice of Mass in English rather than Latin for 2 centuries prior to the time that Mr. Walvin makes a correlation between Newton's exposure to English hymnody and liturgy instead of Latin versions: see this post for more details. https://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...
Other than that, I have no thoughts.

[Dan Nuxoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book discusses slavery in the British colonies, namely North America and the West Indies. The sections on the West Indies focus on Jamaica and Barbados, and those on North America focus on the Chesapeake Bay colonies with some discussion of South Carolina. The section on the North American colonies deals with the period before the American Revolution. The book does discuss trends as well as the differences between colonies.

The book deals with a number of different aspects of slavery from family relations to slave trading. It is a bit repetitious—the issue sexual exploitation of slaves is revisited in most chapters.

The book has a number of strengths. The conditions of slavery are discussed in terms of the working conditions that are shaped by the crops that the slaves produced. In addition, the author makes repeated comparisons between the conditions of the slaves and conditions of working class whites. For example, mortality rates in the 18th century were shockingly high for both groups, although of course, slaves died at higher rates. The book is also clear that African culture was not simply transported to America, but that the culture of the slaves borrowed elements from British culture with these elements becoming more prominent with time. The book also repeatedly points out the effects of the fact that the slaves imported from Africa were mostly male and that slaves from Africa were different in a number of ways from slaves born in the Americas.

I would like to have seen more discussion of several issues that are mentioned, but not explained. For example, there were slaves in Britain itself as well as the other North American colonies (such as Massachusetts). What were their lives like? There were also free blacks living in these colonies. How did they interact with the enslaved blacks? And how were they treated? Finally, how did slavery in British colonies differ from slavery in other regions?Admittedly, these are side issues, but a chapter on each would have been enlightening.

[Chantel Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

(#15)
Genre & Format: History | Print
Title: Black Ivory: Slavery in the British Empire
Author or Creator: James Walvin
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing
Number of pages: 288
Year of publication/release: 2001

I am not someone who is big on history books. The topics often have to be very specific to peak my interest and this one most certainly did. I believe I came across this book when I received another from an overseas bookseller. Slavery in the British Empire is something that wasn’t spoken about in schools (at least while I was growing up), so it was interesting learning about what African slaves endured on non-American soil.

This does not mean there is no focus on America. There are plenty of accounts of life in the South, and the war for independence. However, there is a lot of information about slaves from Jamaica, Haiti, and Barbados (and the English upon their settlements). Format wise, there is a lot of repetition in this book, but there are also maps and a list of major events: English settlement of Jamestown, Thomas Thistlewood’s disturbing diary, slave rebellions, and abolitions. My reading through this book was not as detailed as I would have liked. This was for a course and considering the stack of books I still needed to read, I did not annotate or take notes. I am glad I purchased it so that I can give this book the time it deserves.

[Aurélien Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great overview of the Atlantic Slave Trade and its consequences, from a British perspective.

Each chapter deals with a particular topic, which render the understanding of such a complex narrative easier to digest. From the horrors of the crossing of the Atlantic to the campaigns of the abolitionist movement, from the organisation of slave societies to cultural questions (folklore, religion) and, even, the very peculiar experiences of women, here's a highly instructive and vast panorama. More, by focusing only on key figures, events, and most famous cases, it goes straight to the point to be a very accessible read.

To tell the history of an institution which lasted more than three centuries, while acknowledging its complexity, must have been far from being easy. James Walvin, though, succeeds here brilliantly. A must-read for anyone interested in the topic.

[Kiki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only read certain bits and chapters, researching various topics I needed information on, but it was very informative and well written.