42 CONTEXT 180 : JUNE 2024 IAN WRAY Heritage, industry and slavery With Britain’s industrial heritage such a huge part of its history, when reflecting on the nation’s global significance in the 19th century, interpretation must tell the story accurately. What do you make of the following statements? First, railways were not Britain’s gift to the world: they were the world’s gift to Britain. Second, the riches Britons extracted from their slaves in the Americas flowed mainly to a few cities, such as Liverpool, and by the 1830s these places had large numbers of cotton mills. Third, Britain’s railways were financed by the slave trade: slave owners were compensated for the abolition of slavery and these monies were used to fund the building of Britain’s railways. They are taken from a consultant’s report that crossed my desk a few months ago, from the international business journal The Economist, and from a conversation with a highly educated professional. You may find them surprising, controversial or even counter intuitive. But they are part of a rising tide, seeing events through a new lens, and this may have profound implications for understanding and evaluating our built heritage. The new lens was first formulated by a young Trinidadian scholar, Eric Williams, in the 1930s. Williams argued that the slave trade stimulated British industry in three ways: slaves were bought with the proceeds from British manufacturers; slave production of sugar, cotton, indigo and molasses created new industries in Britain; the West Indies’ economy provided markets for the North American colonies which, in turn, bought British products. Williams’ book, first published in 19441, was heavily criticised by established historians. Only in the 1960s did his ideas begin to receive attention, especially from some American scholars. Philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn has referred to this phenomenon as a ‘new paradigm’. Dissatisfied by existing explanations, a young group of researchers invents a new theory which looks at the world in a potentially more enlightening way. But a new paradigm must be tested against the evidence. 1 Eric Williams (1944, reissued 2022) Capitalism and Slavery Slaves of General Thomas F Drayton, photographed by Henry P Moore in 1882
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