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

阿克兰家族的档案将是我提出的项目的主要来源，该项目是剑桥大学和国家信托基金合作的博士奖项。我提议的项目的关键主题是理解阿克兰家族在漫长的十九世纪的‘使命’，即支撑他们作为家庭和个人的行动和企业的动机和信念。我计划通过阿克兰人与帝国的联系，特别是他们的反奴隶制信仰来探索这个想法。我的项目将对历史学的三个广泛领域做出最大贡献：精英家族史；维多利亚时代的反奴隶制运动；以及大英帝国的空间史。我建议一种方法，突出阿克兰家族的房子，基勒顿，作为家庭的全球联系汇聚的地方，他们不同的个人使命汇聚的地方。根据社会角色和等级制度的规定，不同家庭成员开展的各种运动是否都能构成一个总体使命的一部分？此外，对家庭的关注将从公共生活中经常被排除在外或能力有限的声音和群体的边缘恢复过来：特别是妇女、儿童和家政工作人员。我的项目将加入历史上的“全球转向”，同时保持当地背景的特殊性。它还将有助于一项重要的工作，该工作旨在重新理解反奴隶制运动，而不是崇尚它。

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.