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

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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.