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Britain and the Caribbean: from slavery to Black Lives Matter
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Imaobong Umoren argues that we need to take a longer view of British involvement in the Caribbean
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B
So could we begin with the genesis of this book? What made you decide to embark on this history?
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A
Yeah, that's a very good question. So I think it was a kind of combination of two main things. Firstly, this is the field topic that kind of falls under my broad research interests, and it's based on some of the teaching that I've done throughout my career. But it was also kind of based around the events of 2020 and in particular the kind of rise of the kind of Black Lives Matter movement which had been going for many, many years, but obviously kind of reached sort of national, global attention in the summer of 2020. And in particular I was sort of interested in the conversations that were being had at the time about anti racism. And one of the things that I was as a historian kind of wanting the kind of larger media and public audience to know more about was the longer histories of anti, anti black racism in Britain and how deeply interconnected it was with the larger project of empire. But also how in these discussions about racism, aspects of class weren't really being had to the level that I thought it needed to be. The ways in which we can't really understand racism without thinking about other categories of identity that shape racism, and one of them being class. And so it was a kind of combination of both my research, but also the kind of larger political discussions that were being had at the time. And that really encouraged me, I would say, to think about writing a kind of long due way history that helped the public understand the much longer and deeply entangled histories of racism and how important the Caribbean was and is to these discussions and in particular how important the kind of British colonialism in the Caribbean was to this history and how so much of this history bears really heavily on our present moment and how we can't understand, as I write in the book, sort of contemporary inequalities without thinking about their historical roots and how much of the past is still very much in our present.
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B
So do you feel that some of this historical dimension was missing from the conversations that were happening in the summer of 2020?
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A
I think so. I think there was very much after the kind of Edward Colston statue was thrown into the river, a discussion about empire and legacies of slavery that was being had, but what happened after slavery. So the kind of 19th century, 20th century histories that I felt was kind of missing. I felt there was a lot of focus on slavery, but not so much a focus on the consequences of what happened next. And as I write about in the book, what happens next is a kind of intensification of racism. And so I felt like some of the complexities of the history of Britain were being overlooked because of this prior focus on just this period of slavery. And so I wanted to kind of extend readers understanding of, of this history by kind of starting earlier, starting with the kind of contacts that Europeans had with indigenous people in the Caribbean. And bringing it kind of right up to date to the 21st century to make the case, as I write about in the book, about this much longer entangled history of Britain and the Caribbean and this kind of longer history of racism, which still really impacts our present moment.
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B
And as you say, your book takes a story quite early, doesn't it, into the 16th century, perhaps before a lot of other histories of this subject begin. Why do you feel it is so important to look at that really early engagement with Britain in the Caribbean?
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A
It's really important because it's that early engagement that Britain had with the Caribbean where the whole concept of race is really introduced and developed and is shaped by certain laws that are being passed in the Caribbean. And if we understand the kind of roots and origins of the construction of race, we can see and we can map how it changes over time, how it is inflected by different individuals or different movements. And we can see its complexity in a much more deeper way. And as a result, we can see how it's changed over time, but also how it stayed the same in many ways. So that's the reason why I wanted to kind of start in the kind of 1600s and get audiences and readers to really think about what is happening in Barbados, for instance, in the 1600s.
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B
And is it fair to say that you believe a lot of the discussions and ideas that were developing in the British Caribbean were then exported elsewhere in the British Empire?
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A
Very much so. I do think the Caribbean becomes a really important space for discussions about race, or the construction of race, I should say, and subsequently racism. And that definitely, as I trace in the book, shapes anti black racism in Britain. It impacts the larger sort of black Atlantic, if I want to use that term. It shapes what goes on in the United States and it shapes in part what goes on in Latin America. So very much so. I think the Caribbean is a really unique space for the construction of race, for the development of racism and the violence that comes with it. But it very much is part of a global project that impacts not just the British Empire, but other European empires and US Imperialism and also the kind of racial politics that goes on in the United States at the same time as well.
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B
And how far would you say racism was a cause or more of a consequence of slavery, or is it really a mixture of the two?
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A
So I write in the book about. I trace this kind of histories about who gets picked out as the kind of idealized laborer during the transatlantic slave trade. And what you see happening in the Caribbean in particular is that in the sort of earlier period. So even the kind of early 1600s you see on plantations, let's say in Barbados, you see indentured European laborers working alongside enslaved Africans. But as the period progresses, indentured laborers become less important and enslaved Africans kind of dominate, kind of in particular, sugar plantations. And as a result of this kind of sugar revolution that happens in different islands in the Caribbean, slavery becomes specifically focused on enslaved Africans. And then in part, this then shapes pieces of legislation like the 1660 Barbados slave code, which then kind of legally enshrines and defines the rights and responsibilities of both slaveholders, but also the enslaved people themselves. And this then helps to shape the construction of both race and racism. So it's a really complex history that I think is oftentimes lost when we don't take a real focused attention on the Caribbean. But it's these kind of policies that then help to kind of institute anti black racism as the kind of foundation of society during the period of slavery. And as I argue in the book, even after slavery has ended, anti black racism has only kind of intensified as a result of some of the economic policies that Britain is implementing in the Caribbean and the subsequent sort of economic decline of sugar in the Anglophone Caribbean.
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B
And around this time, you have these two moments, actually maybe even three moments, where you have the abolition of the slave trade and then the eventual abolition of slavery in the Caribbean. Do you feel that these episodes have been misunderstood certainly among the wider public?
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A
Yes, I think they have. I think the narratives that the public have about, in particular, the abolition of slavery, the end of slavery, so kind of 1830s moment is a very celebratory history, and in part, rightly so. Abolitionists in Britain, white abolitionists, did play a really important role in this movement, but I think that their influence has perhaps been not exaggerated, but has more attention has been paid to them than, let's say, enslaved Africans themselves, who, through various means, whether that's through revolts, whether that's through outward acts of defiance, also tried to resist slavery. And also the experiences and role of abolitionists in Britain who weren't white. So Equiano, for instance, being one so formerly enslaved people who ended up being really important abolitionists. Their roles, I think, are oftentimes overlooked. And this very celebratory history is presented without, for instance, thinking about the compensation that was paid to slaveholders, and also without thinking about, okay, so what happens next? So, yes, slavery has ended, but white supremacy, racism still exists and as I said, is even more prominent in the 1840s. Period. And even when slavery is abolished, there's other forms of coerced labor. So the indentureship, for instance, of people from India and other parts of Asia to the Caribbean, where similar aspects of slavery, in terms of the ways in which these laborers were sometimes treated in really violent fashion, endure beyond the abolition of slavery. And so I really wanted to tell a much more complex history of both slavery, but also what happens next to ensure that readers perhaps change their mind about this kind of celebratory, heroic narratives that I think are often presented in the public about sort of the end of. End of slavery and Britain's role in the end of slavery.
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B
There's this key theme in your book that you return to many times, this idea of the racial caste hierarchy. I wonder if you could perhaps explain to our listeners what this is and why it's so important to understand.
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A
The racial caste hierarchy is a term that I have not coined myself. It's a term that historians of the Caribbean have used previously. And it's a term that really defines the society under which the Caribbean operated during the period of slavery. So the racial caste hierarchy is sort of defined very loosely as a kind of pyramid where you have on the bottom of this pyramid the majority of enslaved peoples. In the middle you have mixed race men and women and communities, some of whom were slave owners themselves. And then at the top of this hierarchy you have the kind of white elites, those who are slaveholders and large plantations, those who are also having a lot of colonial power through the legislatures. And this hierarchy really sort of dominates the period of slavery. But it's not a hierarchy that is static. It's not a hierarchy that is devoid of tension. Within each of these categories there are divisions, there are tensions between these communities. There is some movement between the kind of middle and the top. But what's most important about this hierarchy is that the white elites stay at the top for the main. And this hierarchy is undergirded by violence. And so what I do in the book is I trace how this racial caste hierarchy operated during the period of slavery, but also what happened afterwards. And in particular I make this argument that this racial caste hierarchy traveled to Britain. It shaped the color bar that existed in Britain, and it broadly shaped anti black racism, but also that this hierarchy, and one of another reasons why I use this term is that it's not just about race. It's also inflected by categories of gender, by class, by religion. And it's not static. It moves and changes over time, which is similar to the kind of construction of race and racism. Racism isn't just one thing and I hope that by using the term I make more complex how anti black racism operates, how class status, how professional status impacts and the experiences of African Caribbean people, but also white Britons, and also how, as I've said, this racial caste hierarchy adapts and changes over time and how it looks very different in the 20th century than it did, let's say, in the 18th or 17th century.
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B
And I suppose two key moments in the 20th century where these different groups really interact in new ways is the two world Wars. How did they shape the story of Britain and the Caribbean?
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A
Both the first and the Second World wars play a really important role in the book and in this racial caste hierarchy that I talk about in the book. So for the First World War, it's a really interesting time when many middle class African Caribbean men and women see this war as an opportunity to showcase their devotion, their support for empire. Another aspect of the book that I try to make complex is a sort of colonial loyalty and what that meant and what the British Empire meant in particular for African Caribbean people. On the one hand, there were some members of African Caribbean communities who were very much sort of anti colonialists, but There were also other groups who felt that they really did belong to this benevolent image of empire that many of them had been taught about in schools, through churches, through Empire Day celebrations, and through the larger kind of colonial culture. And so for that group, the First World War presents an opportunity for them to really show that they are equal members in the British Empire. With white Britons, for instance, and with other groups across the British Empire, what they are faced with is anti black racism. There is resistance to wanting African Caribbean men in particular to fight alongside white Britons. And this is really based on kind of naked racism. And so, as a result of some of their experiences, changes in their attitude towards the British Empire occurs. And this similarly occurs in the Second World War where, yes, African Caribbean men are present in the Air Force, in other industries, but still, even with this inclusion, there is still resistance to their presence. And many of these men continue to experience anti black racism while they're serving. And this feeds into changes in the attitude that many African Caribbean elites and politicians have as well. And so after the end of the Second World War, you see rising calls for self determination in terms of African Caribbean people wanting to have more control over their individual islands, over the kind of political and economic and cultural decisions that are being made as a result of their kind of disquiet or the reality that they experience, which is that the motherland really isn't as welcoming as many of them had thought. This really does shape the rise of Caribbean nationalism in this post war period and will shape the histories of decolonization in the 1960s and 70s in the Caribbean. So the first and Second World wars are real turning points in the history that I tell about this entangled relationship between Britain and the Caribbean.
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B
And does this idea of an unwelcoming motherland also then extend to the many immigrants from the Caribbean who came to Britain in the post war era?
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A
Yes, very much so. I mean, many of these individuals, families didn't even see themselves as migrants. They saw themselves as sort of equal figures within the empire, as colonial citizens. Right. That language of immigrant, of outsider is kind of foisted on them. And many of them didn't see themselves as that. They saw themselves as colonial citizens who had just as much right to be in Britain as white Britons. So definitely the hostility that many of these communities and individuals experience in Britain really alters their understanding of the motherland. But as I write about in the book, it also expands our understanding about Britishness and British identity. These communities help to define what becomes kind of black British identity. In different ways as a result of their experiences. So it's this kind of double edge where on the one hand, Caribbean people coming to Britain in the post war period experience enormous amounts of prejudice in housing, everyday interactions, employment through the education system. But they challenge that racism, they challenge the inequalities and they challenge the broader racial caste hierarchy as I discuss in the book. And as a result, they come to identify themselves as black Britons. They come to kind of stake a claim in this country in a different way than they had previously understood themselves to be. And that's a really important point that I tried to stress in the book, that this charting of the racial caste hierarchy, this resistance against racism and class based discrimination, exposes and expands British identity in new ways throughout the 20th century.
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B
And resistance is really there throughout the book, isn't it? From the really early days in the Caribbean right through to the present day, you have resistance both in Britain and in the Caribbean. But I presume it changes and evolves as the natures of imperialism, racism change.
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A
Yes, very much so. There's not one kind of image of resistance. As I talk about through the book, there are multiple individuals, organizations, communities across this country and across the Caribbean that try to challenge racism in various ways. And I highlight and pinpoint, focus on certain figures. But I also want readers to look at what's going on in the Caribbean. I think there's a lot of attention being paid to, let's say, the 1960s and protests, anti racist protests, anti colonial protests that are going on in Britain by Caribbean people. But there's also resistance to this kind of idea that decolonization really hasn't changed the Caribbean. In the Caribbean. So in the last chapters in the book, I pay attention to the kind of black power movement that takes place in the Caribbean and how distinct and unique it was, but also how there's a similar black power movement happening in Britain as well. And I do that to again show the different images and facades and faces of resistance, because I think there's a kind of manifold, multiple ways in which different groups in different places at the same time are resisting this racial caste hierarchy.
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B
And then with your book's name, Empire Without End, that clearly suggests this story didn't end in the 1950s and 1960s with decolonisation. And some of these legacies are still very much with us today.
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A
Yes, very much so. The title really gives it away in terms of my key argument, which is that although the kind of formal British empire and constitutional decolonisation has taken place and the former British Empire has ended. The legacies still very much are present both in the Caribbean and in Britain. I talk about the ways in which neocolonialism operates and overlaps in neoliberalism in the 20th century, in the 80s and 90s in particular. And I think that there's so much evidence even in the present day that suggests that the legacies of colonialism are still so ever present in the Caribbean and in Britain in various ways, politically, culturally, socially, economically. Empire really hasn't ended. The racial caste hierarchy still exists in different ways, but the resistance to these two things is ongoing and out of.
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B
Interest, what kind of attitudes, and I realise this will be diverse, but what kind of attitudes do people in the Caribbean today have to Britain and this.
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A
History, as your question suggested, very, very diverse. There's groups on the one hand who are definitely calling for reparations, there's the larger reparations movement that is gaining ground. And this group, this constituency, would definitely argue, obviously empire has not ended and that there needs to be an accountability for what has happened, for this kind of larger past of not just colonialism but also slavery. So there's that group that thinks very much that slavery and the consequences of slavery and colonialism endures today. And there's also other groups who think that this history is so violent, it evokes emotions of shame, regret, that we should try and move on from it, that we shouldn't dwell with this history. I would argue differently. I think we do need to dwell with this history and we do need to reckon with the realities of this. I talk about in the book, the book kind of representing a type of reparatory history. And then there are other groups, other voices in the Caribbean, perhaps from elites in the Caribbean, who say that, you know, colonialism didn't have such bad of an impact in the Caribbean. That is a minority voice, I would argue, because ever increasingly so, the consequences of colonialism, let's say even on the climate crisis, there's so much more attention being paid to that. If we think about how the Caribbean was made a place for plantations, the environmental destruction that then occurred as a result of that, we are living with the very present day realities of that in the Caribbean. And so there's a manifold opinions and thoughts, but I would argue that overwhelmingly there is far more evidence to suggest that the legacies, the negative consequences of this history, of this violent history, negatively impact the Caribbean and will do so for far longer than I think people had perhaps envisaged before, and that there is a need to reckon with this history. And that's why many politicians in the Caribbean are trying to raise their voice in support of reparations, but also why there is a larger kind of move towards republicanism in the Caribbean for those former colonies that still have ties to Britain, that still have the king as their kind of nominal head of state. For instance, Jamaica is making moves to try to move towards being a republic rather than a constitutional monarchy. So again, that would suggest that many in the Caribbean are aware of these entangled ties and legacies that still very much have an impact on the Caribbean today.
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B
And here in Britain, histories of empire and race and slavery have sometimes been viewed as quite controversial in some quarters. Do you have a sense of why that is and perhaps how that can be overcome?
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A
I think it's considered controversial because there's still this contestation over definitions of racism. There are some people who think it doesn't exist. But as I suggested, there's so much historical, anecdotal, contemporary evidence to counter those voices. And I think that there is a larger movement among not just myself as a historian, but other writers, scholars, historians, activists, to really challenge that view by looking at the past, by emphasizing the importance of history and historical sources, which suggest, just as my book makes the argument that racism isn't something that has gone away but is really seeped into state policy is really steeped into the everyday lives of ordinary Britons, both white Britons and non white Britons, I make the case in the book that this history impacts us all in many ways and that we can't really reckon with trying to unravel various overlapping forms of discrimination. And without really grappling with this history, which could oftentimes be very difficult to grapple with because it is a very violent history, but that nonetheless needs to be dealt with if we're ever going to move to a point in society where racism doesn't exist.
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B
And finally, we've talked a lot about fairly broad sweet matters. It's a big book, covers a big history. But are there any particular individuals from the book that you'd like to highlight to our listeners?
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A
Yes, I talk in the beginning of the book about an enslaved woman called Sally Basset. And I sort of frame the kind of arguments of the book around Sally Basset. And she is not as well known as sort of other enslaved women, but she played a really important role as well as the larger field of sort of enslaved women's resistance to the stories and examples of resistance that I give throughout the book. Sally Bassett from Bermuda, Claudia Jones, who was born in Trinidad, who becomes a really influential activist in the kind of post war Britain figures like Harold Moody from Jamaica. These are some of the individuals who I try and make the case in the book were resisting empire, resisting the racial caste hierarchy in different ways through different methods, some of whom are more well known than others, but whose stories really need to be told more and more about more of, I should say, because they really did play an influential role in trying to challenge forms of hierarchy and discrimination.
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B
And it's interesting that quite a few of these people you speak about are women who presumably had to overcome even more obstacles than many of the men in this history.
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A
Yes, very much so. In the book I talk about the gender dimension of women's resistance and women's activism and the racial caste hierarchy I also argue was shaped by gender. And so I really did want to highlight the experiences, the lives of women who are oftentimes not the focus of sort of big history books. I wanted as much as possible to give space to their lived experiences and how important and significant their acts of resistance were to empire and to the project of anti racism more broadly. That was Imabong Umaren, Associate professor of International History at the London School of Economics. Empire Without End, A New History of Britain and the Caribbean is out now published by Fern Press. This episode is brought to you by FX's Alien Earth, the official podcast. Each week, host Adam Rogers is joined by guests, including the show's creator, cast and crew. In this exclusive companion podcast. They will explore story elements, deep dive into character motivations and offer an episode by episode, behind the scenes breakdown of each terrifying chapter in this new series. Search FX's alien Earth wherever you listen to podcasts.