The Aclands of Killerton: Remaking Imperial Britain in the Long Nineteenth Century

阿克兰家族的档案将是我提议的项目的主要来源，这是剑桥大学和国民信托基金会合作的博士奖。我提议的项目的关键主题是理解阿克兰家族在漫长的19世纪的“使命”，即作为一个家族和个人，支撑他们的行动和企业的动机和信仰。我打算通过阿克兰群岛与帝国的联系，特别是他们的反奴隶制信仰来探索这个想法。我的项目将对史学的三大领域贡献最大；精英家族的历史；维多利亚时代的反奴隶制运动；以及大英帝国的空间历史。我提出了一种方法，将阿克兰家族的住宅，基勒顿，作为家庭全球联系的汇集和他们不同的个人使命的结合。由社会角色和等级所决定的不同家庭成员所进行的各种运动，都能构成一个总体使命的一部分吗？此外，对家庭的关注将从经常被排除在公共生活之外或能力有限的边缘声音和群体中恢复过来：特别是妇女、儿童和家庭工作人员。我的项目将加入历史的“全球转向”，同时保持当地背景的特殊性。它也将有助于一个重要的工作，试图重新理解反奴隶制运动，而不是崇拜它。

The Acland family archives would be the chief source for my proposed project, which is a collaborative doctoral awardbetween Cambridge University and the National Trust. The key theme of my proposed project is understanding theAcland family's 'mission' in the long nineteenth century, that is the motivations and beliefs which underpinned theiractions and enterprises as a family and as individuals. I plan to explore this idea through the Aclands' connections toempire, particularly their antislavery beliefs. My project will contribute most to three broad fields of historiography;histories of elite families; the Victorian antislavery movement; and spatial histories of the British Empire. I propose anapproach that foregrounds the Acland family house, Killerton, as the site on which the family's global connectionsconverged and where their different individual missions coalesced. Could the various campaigns undertaken by differentfamily members, as dictated by social roles and hierarchies, all form part of one overarching mission? Furthermore, thefocus on the home would retrieve from the margins voices and groups often excluded from or with limited capacity inpublic life: notably women, children, and household staff. My project would join the 'global turn' in history whilstmaintaining the specificity of local contexts. It would also contribute to an important body of work that seeks toreunderstand the antislavery movement without lionizing it.