Black Victorians : Rethinking the Liberal/Philanthropic British Empire

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The aim of this research is to reconsider the famous discourses on the British Empire, liberating / liberal empire or “benign / philanthropic empire", in focusing on the existence of so-called “Black Victorians". Generally, these discourses were said to have invented in the days of the abolition movement of slavery within the Empire, from 1780s to 1830s, and strongly established in the latter part of the nineteenth century to show the character of the British Empire. The term Black Victorians has been, until recently, rarely discussed topic of the history of black people in Britain. In my research, I picked up several native boys and girls, born in the ruling class in Africa and Asia, who were rescued by the British navy or army from their local sufferings, taken to Britain regardless of their own intentions, had certain experiences of living in the centre of the Empire under the guardianship of Queen Victoria or some British aristocracies. It is very interesting that their rescues were mostly occurred in the 1850s and 60s, and that the context of their rescues was deeply related to the slavery which had already been abolished within the Empire. I closely analyzed how they had been rescued by examining the British Parliament Papers, letters and documents at the Royal Archives, articles in the contemporary newspapers and magazines, annual reports of several missionary societies, and I discovered that the days of their rescue was proved to be critical for the construction of the self-image of the British Empire. This self-image, “liberating/ philanthropic empire", have recently been challenged in the bicentenary of the abolition of slave trade in 2007. I also investigated around UK how this representation of the Empire has been tested in the special events or exhibitions for the bicentenary and made clear the post-modern strategies for citizenship as its legacy.