Slavery and the British Country House (English Heritage) - Hardcover

"a remarkable and accessible new resource for those researching the subject" 'This is a huge, multifacedted subject and English Heritage is to be commended for tackling it head-on.' -- Sophie Andreae * Historic House, Winter 2013 * 'This book is an important milestone in redressing the fact that the heritage sector has been slow to recognise these historical links.' -- Isabelle Priest * Architects Journal * 'The intention in this series of papers to provoke debate and stimulate new approaches to the understanding of our built heritage is admirably realized and should encourage a reappraisal of the somewhat tendentious link country houses and their landscapes have with slavery.@ -- Tim Mowl * H-HistGeog * This beautifully-produced and richly-illustrated collection of essays marks the fruition of efforts made to assess the connections between slavery and the British country house ... This collection has much to offer georgraphers, historians, and all those in the business of heritage. The question of 'Whose Heritage?' is far from resolved. -- Catherine Hall * Journal of Historical Geography, 45 (2014), 120-141 * This book is a worthwhile read with plenty of information on a wide range of sites in addition to its value in beginning a necessary open discussion of this sensitive subject. -- David Brown * Landscape History, Volume 35/2 *

There are few things more emblematic of England's heritage than the great country houses which grace our landscape. But such properties are not to be viewed simply as objects of architectural and curatorial or artistic interest. They are also expressions of wealth, power and privilege and, as new questions are being asked of England's historic role in the Atlantic world, and in particular about slavery, new connections are being unearthed between the nation's great houses and its colonial past. In 2007 English Heritage commissioned initial research into links with transatlantic slavery or its abolition amongst families who owned properties now in its care. This was part of the commitment by English Heritage to commemorate the bicentenary of the abolition of the British transatlantic slave trade with work that would make a real difference to our understanding of the historic environment in the longer term. The research findings and those of other scholars and heritage practitioners were presented at the 'Slavery and the British Country House' conference which brought together academics, heritage professionals, country house owners and community researchers from across Britain to explore how country houses might be reconsidered in the light of their slavery linkages and how such links have been and might be presented to visitors. Since then the conference papers have been updated and reworked into a cutting edge volume which represents the most current and comprehensive consideration of slavery and the British country house as yet undertaken. English Heritage is proud to be publishing work on which historians, educators and heritage professionals can all build to develop new understandings of this challenging and important part of our national story.