William Hardin Burnley's guest appearances

William Hardin Burnley

The National Archives Podcast Series

J Scott

Henry V

Heidi Thomas

Charles Darwin

Richard III

Guy Burgess

Suzannah Lipscomb

Thomas Cook

Henry VIII

John Kirk

Thomas Cromwell

Philippa Gregory

Charles I

Jenny Uglow

James Bible

OwlTail

William Hardin Burnley, the biggest slave owner in Trinidad, did everything in his power to prevent the emancipation of Africans in the colony. When slavery ended, he was convinced that only Africans who had tyrannical masters would benefit from emancipation. The rest, he opined, 'Were too ignorant to understand the real position in which they were placed.' This lecture examines Burnley's participation in slavery, his attempts to prevent Africans from being emancipated, his subterfuge to keep them enslaved under another guise called apprenticeship and his energetic efforts to recruit workers from outside of Trinidad to undercut the gains that former slaves had made in the post-apprenticeship period.

William Hardin Burnley and Caribbean slavery