The 'Second Middle Passage': British Abolitionism and the Emigration Journeys from St Helena to the British West Indies (1840-60).

英国在废除大西洋奴隶贸易中所扮演的角色，继续被作为民族自豪感的来源，在公众和政治话语中得到颂扬。2007年，在宣布“废除奴隶贸易200周年”时，约翰·普雷斯科特强调，英国“在立法反对奴隶贸易方面引领了世界”。将近十年后，大卫·卡梅伦将废奴与“英国性”的概念融合在一起，声称我们不应该“对我们的成就过于拘谨”，因为“这是一个帮助……废除奴隶制”。这种沾沾自喜的话语的创造，同时又将英国在过去400年里在奴隶制中扮演的角色最小化，这是一种明显的讽刺。与英国“胜利”的叙述相反，这位博士将通过圣赫勒拿岛的移民计划来强调废除奴隶制的可怕和基本上未知的人类后果。从1840年到19世纪60年代中期，这个偏远的岛屿成为英国海军从非法奴隶船上捕获的非洲奴隶的“解放地”。岛上有限的容量和随后的过度拥挤推动了移民计划的实施，将“解放”的非洲人运送到英属西印度群岛。

Britain's role in the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade continues to be drawn on as a source of national pride, celebrated in public and political discourse. Announcing the 'Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade' in 2007, John Prescott highlighted that Britain had 'led the world in legislating against the vil trade'. Nearly a decade later, David Cameron merged abolition into ideas of 'Britishness', claiming that we should not be 'squeamish about our achievements', as 'this is the country that helped...abolish slavery'. The creation of this self-congratulatory discourse whilst minimising Britain's role in enslavement over the previous 400 years presents an obvious irony. In contrast to the narrative of British 'triumph', this PhD will highlight the horrifying and largely unknown human consequences of abolition through the lens of St Helena's emigration scheme. From 1840 until the mid-1860s, the remote island became a place of 'liberation' for enslaved Africans captured by the British Navy from illegal slaving vessels. Limited capacity and subsequent overcrowding on the island motivated the implementation of an emigration scheme, transporting 'liberated' Africans to the British West Indies.