Empire – Episode 307: Austen vs Brontë: Unmasking Slavery Heiresses

Host: Anita Anand
Co-Host: William Dalrymple
Guest: Dr. Miranda Kaufmann (historian, author of Black Tudors and Heiresses: Marriage, Inheritance and Caribbean Slavery)
Release Date: November 13, 2025

Overview

This episode explores the often-overlooked connections between Britain's literary canon—specifically the works and lives of Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë—and the immense, frequently invisible wealth generated by Caribbean slavery. Guest historian Dr. Miranda Kaufmann shares research from her book Heiresses, shedding light on the women whose fortunes—rooted in enslavement—helped build empires and shaped the experiences of the era’s most celebrated authors.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Invisible Empire in British Literature

• Host observation: English literature seldom grapples with the reality or profits of empire and slavery, which is "almost completely absent to a weird extent" from domestic novels of the time (02:59).
  • “It’s extraordinary because over the course of, you know, 300 years, the British kind of invaded almost everywhere… but if you look in British domestic English literature of the period, it's almost completely absent to a weird extent.” — William Dalrymple [02:36]
• Empire was hidden: The immense wealth from slavery manifested domestically—in architecture or lifestyle—but “enslaved people are kept out of sight in the Caribbean slave colonies.” — William Dalrymple [04:43]

The Caribbean Heiresses: Wealth, Agency, and Absenteeism

• Defining “heiress”: Women inheriting wealth from plantation-slavery in the Caribbean often played an active business role, issuing instructions and even orders for enslaved people to plantation managers overseas, as seen in detailed correspondence. [07:10]

  • “We have some pretty active business women… writing to attorneys on the plantations… she puts in an order for more enslaved people and talks about what brands they should have put on them.” — Miranda Kaufmann [07:27]

• Case study: Mary Oswald

  • Born in Scotland, raised in Jamaica, returned wealthy to Scotland, married a tobacco merchant, and invested in the slaving fort Bance Island, leading to the trafficking of 13,000 enslaved people [08:17].
  • Hosted American delegates (Franklin, Adams, Jay) and played a role in the Treaty of Paris peace negotiations [13:16–13:40].
    • “She had enormous standing because Mary entertained American delegates at the end of the Revolutionary War… and Richard had a hand negotiating the final peace treaty.” — Anita Anand [13:16]

• Social status and race: Frances D.L., with a grandmother who was an enslaved African and a mother who was born enslaved, moved to England and married into the aristocracy, achieving a measure of social acceptance—even attending George II's birthday party at court. [14:50]

  • “It was quite hard…because I was trying to find a few more…examples of prejudice… but there wasn’t as much as you might expect.” — Miranda Kaufmann [15:23]

Family Connections to Literature: Jane Austen

• Austen’s family and slavery:
  • Her father was trustee of an Antiguan plantation; her aunt, Jane Cholmondeley (Jenny), was a Caribbean heiress whom Jane both depended on and disliked [16:01].
• Austen’s social web: Multiple relatives with deep connections to colonial wealth, from the Indian subcontinent to Bermuda, with possible mixed-race Austen descendants in the Caribbean [24:09].
  • “There are so many people that Jane Austen knew that had these links, but I think Jane Austen's aunt is the strongest.” — Miranda Kaufmann [23:45]
• Aunt as inspiration for fiction: Jenny was likely inspiration for unsympathetic characters like Mrs. Allen in Northanger Abbey [18:28].
• Austen’s silence and criticism:
  • Famous novels only briefly acknowledge slavery (e.g., Mansfield Park mentions the uncle’s Antigua plantation).
  • Edward Said’s critique: “Austen’s not a racist... but everything we know about Austen and her values is at odds with the cruelty of slavery… a white, privileged, insensitive, complicit…” — cited by Anita Anand [26:13–26:32].
  • Dalrymple argues that the distance—literal and social—made atrocities invisible to Austen and her circle [26:32].
• Abolition context: Jane Austen admired abolitionist Thomas Clarkson, indicating awareness of the brutality of enslavement [27:44].

The Woman of Colour: Lost Literature on Race

• The Woman of Colour (1808): A rare contemporary novel centering a mixed-race Jamaican heiress, Olivia Fairfield, confronting racism and societal hostility in England [32:08]
  • “She faces horrific racism. Her cousin that she's meant to be marrying is just appalled at the sight of her... another relative … just serves her this big plate of rice, just rice at the meal... There’s a young child she meets who tries to start washing the dirt off her skin for her.” — Miranda Kaufmann [32:08–33:08]
• Authorship: Published anonymously—“it could conceivably have been written by a woman of colour with that experience” [33:33].
• Respectability politics: The heroine must conform to extreme moral standards, and the story ends with her choosing to educate, not free, the enslaved people on her inherited plantation [33:38].

Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, and Creole Inheritance

• Charlotte Brontë’s background: Born in 1816—the year of a major Caribbean slave rebellion—her family’s stories also threaded with loss and hardship [34:30].
• Jane Eyre’s madwoman, Bertha Mason:
  • Bertha is a Jamaican heiress, whose fortune lures Mr. Rochester to marry her. The story echoes real patterns from Miranda’s research [35:51].
  • “It’s the kind of classic story from my book… Mr. Rochester’s father hears about this extremely wealthy heiress and sends him out to Jamaica to catch her.” — Miranda Kaufmann [35:51]
  • Bertha’s possible mixed race is left ambiguous but suggested by physical descriptions; the subtext connects “wildness” and “madness” to racial origins—a common trope intertwined with imperial prejudice [36:44–37:40].
  • “The phrase that comes back over and over again is that the ones who get sent back are fair enough to escape detection… everything depended on the slightest shade of their skin color..." — William Dalrymple [37:40]
• Passing and race: Ongoing theme—mixed-race children “fair enough to escape detection” could assimilate; those with darker skin faced exclusion or outright prejudice [37:40, 38:20].
• Wide Sargasso Sea: Jean Rhys’s 1966 novel reimagines Bertha (Antoinette) as a tragic, complex figure, confronting both racial trauma and imperial misogyny. The novel plays with ambiguities of “Creole” identity—as Miranda notes, “Creole literally just means born in the Caribbean, really” [40:43].

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Freedom from British rule is the single most popular secular festival anywhere in the world. Every six days, somewhere celebrates freedom from British rule.” — William Dalrymple [02:49]
• “It’s almost like a passing landscape of big buildings and, you know, so-and-so’s uncle is going overseas to the Caribbean, but no explanation as to why …” — Anita Anand [03:29]
• “One woman … puts in an order for more enslaved people and talks about what brands they should have put on them.” — Miranda Kaufmann [07:27]
• “She’s going to hell, essentially — for making him cold and wet and making Pegasus fart all the way to the next inn.” (on Robbie Burns’s poem about Mary Oswald) — Anita Anand [13:10]
• “There was always everything depended on the slightest shade of their skin color — that two completely different lives could happen.” — William Dalrymple [37:40]
• “The novels are willfully silent about colonial cruelty — they all know about it, but they're indifferent to it.” (paraphrasing Edward Said) — William Dalrymple [27:00]
• “Creole just means born in the Caribbean. So ... it’s either they were born in Africa or born in the Caribbean.” — Miranda Kaufmann [40:43]

Important Segment Timestamps

• 02:36–03:29: Absence of empire/slavery in British literature
• 04:43–05:42: Overview of the Georgian era, slavery, wealth, and cultural impact
• 07:10: What is an heiress? Agency of women in managing slave plantations
• 08:17–09:27: Mary Oswald’s story: wealth, Jamaica, and Bance Island slave fort
• 13:16–13:40: Mary Oswald’s political/social status in London, ties to Treaty of Paris
• 14:50–15:23: Frances D.L.: mixed heritage, acceptance, and mobility in England
• 16:01–18:31: Jane Cholmondeley (Austen’s aunt), Bath, and links to fiction
• 24:09–25:32: Possible mixed-race descendants of the Austen family in Bermuda
• 26:13–27:30: Edward Said’s critique of Austen and literary silence on slavery
• 32:08–33:38: The Woman of Colour and literary treatment of race
• 35:51–37:40: Bertha Mason in Jane Eyre, wealth, race, and “passing”
• 40:43–41:48: Creole identity, colonial prejudice, Wide Sargasso Sea
• 42:27–42:49: Modern legacy — Aston Villa Football Club’s Caribbean heiress connection

Conclusion & Takeaways

This episode reveals the scale and complexity of the connections between British literary icons, their families, and the profits and inequities of empire. Through the stories of heiresses, overlooked/forgotten literature, and the coded presences in Austen’s and Brontë’s works, the hosts and Miranda Kaufmann urge listeners to re-examine the comfortable narratives of the English novel and the history that built them.

Highly recommended: Miranda Kaufmann's Heiresses, “an eye opener to wandering around, even maybe your hometown.” — Anita Anand [42:49]

Next Episode Preview:
A discussion of Asterix and Babar the Elephant — two iconic cartoon series with surprising imperial themes.