How did late eighteenth-century British abolitionists come to view the slave trade and British colonial slavery as unnatural, a "dread perversion" of nature?

Join Brycchan Carey, author of The Unnatural Trade - Slavery, Abolition, and Environmental Writing, 1650-1807, as he focuses on slavery in the Americas, and the Caribbean in particular, alongside travellers' accounts of West Africa.

Before the mid-eighteenth century, natural histories were a primary source of information about slavery for British and colonial readers. Increasingly they adopted a pro-slavery stance to accommodate the needs of planters by representing slavery as a "natural" phenomenon.

However, from the mid-eighteenth century, abolitionists adapted the natural history form to their own writings, and many naturalists became associated with the antislavery movement.

Carey draws on descriptions of slavery and the slave trade created by naturalists and other travellers with an interest in natural history, showing how these were used by abolitionists to build a compelling case that slavery was “unnatural”, a case popularised by abolitionist poets.

Start time: 17:30 (Doors open 17:20)

Finish time: 18:30 approx

Glass of fizz on arrival

Location: York Mansion House, St Helen's Square, York, YO1 9QL

Please note we have 2 wheelchair spaces available, please email ymhevents@york.gov.uk or call us on 01904 553663 when booking your tickets to secure a wheelchair space.

Non-refundable