Slavery, trade and settler colonialism

This article is part of a growing body of work examining links between Australasian settler colonialism and British slavery, stimulated by the Legacies of British Slavery (LBS) project. 1 Britain's two centuries of involvement in African slavery and its gradual withdrawal following high-profile anti-slavery campaigns in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries produced ideas about race and labour that colonists carried with them to the new southern edges of its empire. A small but not insignificant number of colonists had direct links to slavery and anti-slavery campaigns, links that for the most part remain unexplored. 2 This article traces the multiple ways in which slavery permeated the life of Western Australia's first governor, James Stirling (1791-1865). It begins by noting the influence of slavery and anti-slavery ideas in Stirling's proposals for colonising Australia's western third. These proposals were put forward three years before he commenced as governor in 1829 until he exited the office in 1839. In the second section, this article explores the role of slavery in the tobacco, sugar and textiles trades that generated considerable wealth and social prestige for Stirling's family and facilitated his rise in the Royal Navy. In the third section, this article describes income Stirling derived from slavery while stationed as a Royal Navy captain in Jamaica between 1812 and 1818. In the final section, this

Ancient history · Archaeology · Colonialism · Empire · Physics · Stirling engine · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Studies of British Isles · History · Scottish History and National Identity

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