Scotland, Slavery and Abolition

This course will introduce students to the processes by which slavery and the slave trade in the British Empire were abolished. Students will learn about the impact of the slave trade to Britain’s economy and the Empire, the work and successes of British abolition societies, the opposition to abolition, and the political efforts to abolish the slave trade and slavery. This course highlights the importance of New World slavery and enslaved labour to Glasgow’s tobacco lords and the city’s emergence as the “Second city of the empire”. It also examines how the people and profits of the slave trade changed the built landscape, industry, trade, and architecture across central Scotland.