Doing reparatory history: bringing 'race' and slavery home. (July 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hall, Catherine
• Is Part Of: Race & class. Volume 60:Number 1(2018)
• Page Start: 3
• Page End: 21
• Publication Date: 2018-07
• Subjects: collective memory -- disavowal -- historical wrongs -- Legacies of British Slave-ownership project -- Macaulay -- 'race' -- reparation -- slavery; Race relations -- Periodicals; Social classes -- Developing countries -- Periodicals; 305.8
• DOI: 10.1177/0306396818769791
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0306-3968

Abstract

This article asks whether history writing can be reparatory. Opening with a discussion of the bi-centenary of the abolition of the slave trade in 2007 and the national conversation that was created at that time, it goes on to reflect on contestations over memory and the significance of the emergence of reparations as a key term with which to think about the wrongs of the past and the possibilities of repair. It uses a discussion of the author's individual and collaborative historical work to argue for the importance of a different understanding of Britain's involvement in the slavery business and our responsibilities, as beneficiaries, of the gross inequalities associated with slavery and colonialism.