Questions About Black and British: A Forgotten History

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Hi there! I'm thinking about buying this book.. how similar is it to the BBC series? Thanks!

Anthony Lipmann I have also seen some of the BBC TV series. The book is different, serious and academic. Olusoga's ability to tell the story of Britain's interaction …moreI have also seen some of the BBC TV series. The book is different, serious and academic. Olusoga's ability to tell the story of Britain's interaction with black cultures over centuries puts the slave trade and slavery (two different things) into its historic context from its origins going back to the charters issued under Charles I and Cromwell. It paints the picture of a less racist period within some parts of London in 18th Century when someone like Samuel Johnson shared his lodgings with Francis Barber whom he made his heir, and when black people in Britain were not purely seen through the prism of slavery. But at the heart of the book are horrifying contemporary descriptions of the conditions on slave ships as well as lynch mobs in the post WWI period when poverty in the English population put them in competition with black Britons. In the late 18th and early 19th C the views of anti-abolitionist merchants are extensively discussed and how they campaigned to undo by their actions the steadfast earlier work of abolitionists such as Granville Sharp. Later, we also see the myth making of how Britain conceals continued racist attitudes while claiming to be the first nation to abolish. (less)

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