Making the Black Atlantic: Britain and the African Diaspora

by James Walvin

The British role in the shaping and direction of the African diaspora was central, since the British carried more Africans across the Atlantic than any other nation, and British colonial settlements absorbed vast numbers of Africans. The crops produced by those slaves helped to lay the foundations for western material well-being, and their associated cultural habits helped to shape key areas of western sociability which survive to the present day. The shadow of slavery lingered long after the institution itself had died, and this racism survived into the 20th century, reinforced and periodically reinvented by powerful cultural forces - commercialism, schooling, popular journalism and a host of visual images. Recently the story of migration has been marked by a wave of migration, since 1945, from the former slave colonies and other parts of the empire to Britain, with long-reaching consequences for British domestic life. This book presents the story of the African exile, its origins, its progress and its transformation from bondage to freedom.

Genres: History

180 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1999

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

[armin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real foundational text of the Black Atlantic… very different from something like The Black Atlantic but very very necessary… full of interesting data, graphs, numbers, dates, to help make sense of the imperial rivalry and you would say the premise of the book is that Britain didn’t start the transatlantic trade (which also included chattel slavery) but the system came to extended levels of optimization under the British Empire, in many repects… whether in the economy around it, whether the number of those transported, etc. It’s just so informative!

[Timothy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent readable and concise review of British slavery and the making of the Atlantic world aka the African diaspora. James Walvin has written extensively on Black Britain and the diaspora and his mastery of the subject shows in this fine but now somewhat dated book. I would still recommend or assign chapters from the book and find it a nice reference.