A further reminder of this forthcoming conference:

Rethinking the Fall of the Planter Class

A one-day conference at Chawton House Library, Hampshire, UK

Tuesday 21 September 2010


This event will focus on the decline and fall of the British-Caribbean planter class. Presenters will bring new perspectives to bear on economic, political and cultural aspects of the planters' fall from economic prosperity and apparent political influence, looking at the period between the middle of the eighteenth century and the gradual dismantling of slavery in the British empire during the 1830s. The conference brings together leading researchers in a variety of disciplines with interests in slavery, abolition and empire. It aims to provide new ways of understanding the long-overlooked phenomenon of the planters' decline and fall, a process that had a profound impact on the interconnected histories of the Caribbean, Britain and the wider British empire and that shaped debates about slavery and freedom in the world beyond.

Key areas of focus:
- Enslaved people and plantation management
- Emancipation and compensation
- The representation and reputation of the planter class
- Proslavery politics
- The cultural lives of the planters

Speakers:
Ian Barrett (Kings College), Trevor Burnard (University of Warwick), Heather Cateau (University of the West Indies), Nick Draper (UCL), David Lambert (Royal Holloway), Christer Petley (University of Southampton), David Beck Ryden (University of Houston), Veront Satchell (University of the West Indies)

Registration fee: £50 (concessionary rate: £35)

Three course conference dinner (with wine): £40 (optional)

To book a place: http://www.humanities.soton.ac.uk/conferences/details.asp?id=259

For further information: Dr Christer Petley ([log in to unmask]) www.soton.ac.uk/history


DRAFT PROGRAMME:

9.00: registration and refreshments

10.00: SESSION 1 - THE RISE AND FALL OF THE PLANTER CLASS
Dr Christer Petley (Southampton), 'Introduction: Rethinking the Fall of the Planter Class'
Prof. Trevor Burnard (Warwick), 'The Rise of the Planter Class in Jamaica, 1660-1763'
Dr Nick Draper (UCL), 'The Rise of a New Planter Class? Some Counter-Currents from British Guiana and Trinidad 1807-1833'

11.40: refreshments

12.00: SESSION 2 - LABOUR AND CONTROL IN CARIBBEAN SLAVE SOCIETIES
Dr Veront Satchell (UWI, Mona), 'Black Enslavement and Labour Productivity: The Jamaican Sugar Industry 1760-1830'
Dr Heather Cateau (UWI, St Augustine), '"The Limits of Control": Planters, Attorneys and Enslaved Workers on British West Indian Plantations'

1.30: lunch

2.30: SESSION 3 - THE PLANTERS IN BRITAIN
Dr David Beck Ryden (Houston, Texas), 'The London Society of West India Planters and Merchants after abolition, 1807-1834'
Dr Ian Barrett (King's College), 'Planters and Politics: Rethinking the Role of Planters in the British Public Sphere'

4.00: refreshments

4.30: SESSION 5 - THE CULTURAL LIVES OF PLANTERS
Dr David Lambert (Royal Holloway), 'The Planter's day-off: Resting, Riding and Marooning'


5.30: plenary discussion


6.00pm: conference dinner


8.00pm: conference ends



Dr Christer Petley
Humanities (History)
University of Southampton, UK
SO17 1BJ
+44(0)2380592152

C. Petley, Slaveholders in Jamaica: Colonial Society and Culture during the Era of Abolition
(www.pickeringchatto.com/jamaica)