Media & Mediation in 18th Century Scotland: Voices, Manuscripts and 'Guid Black Prent': Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society

Description

'Newspapers, Slaves, and Identities in Eighteenth-Century Scotland' Abstract: Through study of the advertisements for sales of slaves and runaway slaves in eighteenth-century Scotland, we can start to understand how Scots understood and perceived the men and women of African and Indian descent held as slaves in Scotland. These advertisements were in some cases rather formulaic, and undoubtedly reflect colonial advertising practice. Also, they do not necessarily produce an accurate sample of the black or Indian experience of enslavement in Scotland. Nonetheless, they offer enough that is novel to help us move towards an understanding of the unique reality of black and Indian slavery in eighteenth-century Scotland, and to grasp the circumstances of their lives. Through their study we can also see how the wider Scots community understood these individuals in their midst, an understanding that reflects back to illuminate the eighteenth-century slave-owning Scots themselves.

Period	Apr 2012
Event type	Conference
Location	Columbia, United StatesShow on map