 Let's start. Let me take you back in time a little bit to late spring and in summer of 2020. This is really the mid or the beginning of our newly found fears, anxieties, and overall the uncertainties of COVID crisis. We came to witness a brutal killing a brutal killing of George Floyd, which was fully recorded on tape and in that sense, quite shocking. Then in its aftermath, we witnessed a subsequent uprising that swept across America, the first place, and then the world as well, including, or perhaps more accurately, especially Britain, which has its own slave past, of course, just enmeshed with within its imperial and colonial history. So that global uprising, if you will, also started a public debate here in Britain elsewhere, but the one in Britain is especially interesting for reasons that I will talk about. The public debate revolved around global legacies of slavery, the kind of social, economic and legal order that it brought about its spawn, which was based primarily on a racial difference. So that's really the essence of that public debate that followed the or actually was quite simultaneously carried out with with the protests. So, this is of course not to say that such discussions did not exist before. But this was really the first time that it that the issue was discussed with this level of intensity and this scale as well. So not to say the such events as the police killing of George Floyd did not happen before. It certainly did. And if anything, such events as especially lynchings were public spectacles in the late 19th century, early 20th century US will they barely attracted attention from general public but nevertheless they were public events, and let alone inciting widespread protests. And here I included this image, especially because because it's such a strong image notice what's written on the scaffold that says justice, and this is one expression of justice and that's really what makes it very, very complicated because everyone has their own understanding of justice whereas you can see that here is a lynching going on. The lynchings as public spectacles continued through the early 20th century in the US, which eventually forced African American populations, the southern states to migrate rather flee flee to the cities, bigger towns up north, where they, they met this time. There are pogroms and race riots and massacres to so it really continues and in different forms in the later parts of the 19th 20th century. This has been an ongoing situation in the US with great intensity but also it produced a lot of highly strategic, highly creative ways of protesting and standing against that violence, which really we in the rest of the world do a lot to. So it's important to see these two sides of the story together I mean that these are horrific events, such as lynchings, which also created why the solid solidarities claims to justice equality and freedom and so forth. So it's important that we look into that aspect as well. When we come back to this side of the Atlantic Ocean. The story on this side of the Atlantic Ocean is not as visceral as in the US, at least ostensibly, but nevertheless legacies of slavery endured in various different forms. To summer 2020 one incident during the widespread protests, especially spark or shifted or shaped the public debate that I talked about and made it into a really heated one in every way. So by that you can see this on the screen, and I mean specifically the toppling of the Colston statue in Bristol. So let me take you to that particular moment, which I'm sure you're very familiar with and raise a few basic questions and please feel free to type in in the. In that section as as we as we go. What was it that the protesters want. What was the claim on the protesters side. And what was the symbolic meaning I mean that the protesters made a specific actually underlined it or made a specific emphasis of toppling the statue into the Bristol Bristol Harbor. So what was the symbolic meaning of that and these all tie, of course, to the question who Edward Colston was in in many ways. And the Colston was was member of Royal African society company from 1680 onwards, becoming one of its high ranking administrators deputy governor in 1689 Royal African company held a monopoly on slave trade. Colston himself personally personally responsible for the transportation of 80,000 individuals from West Coast of Africa to the Americas. He oversaw a trade that brought great wealth to him personally, making Colston one of the richest people in not only in Bristol but also in in in Britain, and also brought prosperity to to Bristol, accordingly. And what that I mean you're talking about that scale in in slave trade is difficult to fade them and let me just show you an image will hear this is something that I really love that came about as a joke. Right after the toppling of the of the statue that and you can see that's happening all over the place in the world with with other whether other statue toppling incidents, which I found really amusing. And let me just quickly move on and just really to understand what it meant in actuality. It's really helps to look at what a slave ship look like and how it was how it was organized. You can see here that a ship that was regulated under the 1788 act which limited the number of slaves that could be carried in one ship. The name the ship is here you can see a Brooks and and was allowed to carry up to 454 individuals, when these are relatively small ships, you have to understand that you know the the the organization and the people on the on the ship had to be in this particular way. In the past before the regulation, this particular ship reportedly took on as many as 609 people on board carried over these these people were shackled together hundreds of enslaved people lay in their own filth basically in a voyage that lasted four to eight weeks six to eight weeks and and occasionally thrown into the water as well. And there were other incidents right around that time as we're talking about 17th century this is really the height of of slave trade across the Atlantic, or the early beginnings of that that intense trade. The, when one incident is especially worthy of mention. That I mean, I said that there were several incidents that tested to extreme violence on on on these ships. And one is, as I said, especially worthy of mention, known as the song incident massacre where more than 130 enslaved people were thrown overboard. And just to be claimed as insurance compensation by the ships owners and and this, I think, is an image that illustration, the description given by William Wilberforce, the pioneering abolitionist in the UK on in a speech delivered the House of Commons. One other question perhaps to to to raise keep in mind, why did this happen in Bristol that the uprising, specifically, where else could this happen in in Britain. We know that Liverpool was also equally involved in in slave trade. Gregson responsible for the song massacre that I just mentioned was based in Liverpool, Manchester was where the where the cotton exchange market was based. Also, it was party to to to the slave trade in general, Glasgow was also was was part of that story, quite a few people were engaged in slave produced industrial agriculture, and they amassed tobacco and sugar profits in an unprecedented way during this time. And of course, not to mention finance and insurance sectors based in London was also party to making sustaining with the Atlantic slave trade system in many ways. So, this again ties into the question of the symbolic meaning of the toppling the of at Colston statue, also toppling or throwing the statue into the Bristol harbor. But this is again a broader question to think about, perhaps did the statue itself signify or commemorate whose memory in legacy, was it keeping alive, or commemorating for whom. And this was part of that public debate is heated debate during this time at that that I just mentioned. And one other question perhaps to keep in mind the food for thought is when the Colston statue was erected in the first place, which doesn't really go that that far back in time. The statue was 18 was erected in 1895. And one question to keep in mind and to raise here why was that so what was it that made 1895 particularly in opportune time to to to erect that statue. This question applies to all statues of, of sort of dubious figures such as Edward Colston. This applies to all the Confederate statues in the US as well that they are erected particular moments in American history, as the Colston was was was that the statue was erected in that particular moment in British history as well. But let me, I mean from from from the act itself, let me move on to the responses to the toppling of the Colston statue. As you may remember from, from, from newspapers or, or, or TV news that there were two, I mean, first of all, the Prime Minister described in this misty act broadly as thuggery, and not much else. And how it was presented by, by, by, by the state, by the government. But other than that, there were two main line of arguments which I found very interesting which also ties to what we're dealing with here also in the module in general. And so most of these lines of argument was so historically inaccurate claim that said, basically British Empire was involved in slave trade. True, but it was also the first country in the world that banned slavery. And so it deserves a credit for being the world's first abolitionist state. I say this is historically inaccurate. This was the first country that banned slavery the sentiment known as Haiti today, through an in island wide slave rebellion so the actual practice of slavery was banned as a result of a slave revolt on the island. This happened shortly after the French Revolution, where the slaves went against royalist slave owners, and rightly asked, are we now Republican citizens. Of course, I knew the answer to this question, but what they were not from the viewpoint of the, of the, of the French, but nevertheless they asked the question and made the claim to citizenship republican citizenship, and in doing so, they managed to remain not only their personal freedom. After a very long and arduous process of course, but they also effectively free the colonized, eventually at least from French government ended up paying a huge debt for this, but nevertheless, they claimed their freedom as as an island without slaves in, if, if you will. And just as a side note, why don't we know about this history. So if you can take a quick look at Michelle wolf to yours famous and influential path breaking book silencing the past. It talks about the relationship power and, and the process of writing history recording history. British Empire was not the first to ban slavery. The confusion comes from perhaps the technicality that British Empire was was very much involved in banning the slave trade in the world. And here you can see at the moment, or maybe this document as well. That this was made. So, in that sense, Britain certainly deserves a credit for abolishing slave trade in the world, especially in the on the Atlantic Ocean. But nevertheless, it's also used that legal development that it affected to its benefit in in other parts of the world. So here you can see a telegram message from the British console in the from the coastal town of Ismir in today's Turkey, and where the the the consular offices, as well as British marine forces were naval forces were policing the eastern Mediterranean. Here, you can see British console cumbers batch writing to the ambassador about possible trafficking slaves in the in the eastern Mediterranean and cumbers batch here. What you can see is, is a great grand uncle of Benedict cumbers batches, as you may have suspected. The second line of argument to to to continue in response to the protest and the toppling of the of the statue of Colston was me. The piece for me was immensely more interesting than the first one, which I dedicate the remainder of this lecture. So many people written this practice of slavery was insignificant involvement in slavery was insignificant. And it gave itself for the simple fact that every civilization in history also practiced it. Conservative MPs, public intellectuals, some traditional controversial historians describe slavery simply as banal banal because, because everyone practiced it at some point. And slavery as a practice directly in the British Caribbean, for instance, or profited from indirectly by the British Empire was merely one among many forms of slavery practice of slavery in the past millennia of human history. And for that reason, constituted no basis for the kind of critique directed at Britain's Imperial past, in general, individuals like Edward Colston in particular. So here again, let me unpack of this argument a bit. This line of argument, because it's very important especially for understanding the broader global history legacies of slavery. Those who make this particular claim on the so called banality of slavery tend to underplay, not necessarily deliberately, but downplay the meaning and uses of slavery and slave labor. So it changed in the 19th century. In the 19th century, no aspect of the kind of slavery practiced in a large science or farms of industrial agriculture known as plantations, resembled any other system of slavery in the world or in the history I mean you have to realize the intensity of plantation slavery in place the 19th century. And one of the most immediate reasons, especially in the towards the towards mid 19th century. And had to do mainly with new technologies employed in cotton production as a cotton gin invented in late 18th century, fully adopted in employed in early decades of the 19th century, or a new transplant transportation technologies, most notably the steamboat, who could now go up the river of Mississippi specifically, carrying the slave produced cotton to the cotton mills the northern states, which I mean the northern states banned slavery long time ago, but nevertheless benefited from the commercial boom attached to slave produced cotton. So, what I mean this is what historians are called steamboat imperialism, which gradually connected the cotton producing south American south to the industrial north and to the world gradually as well. All these developments gave slavery a novel and unprecedented economic significance, cut seriously catapulting America to the helm of well world economy, but bringing great wealth and power to its trade allies, most notably British Empire. So even after Britain abolished slavery in its entirety. And this happens in 1838. And it continued to ally with American cotton producers and continued to really benefit from the from the slave produced cotton for good parts of the 19th century. What is really key here is that the US UK coalition steered world politics to protect slavery whenever possible, or to export the plantation model to other places whenever necessary now say a few things about this in a minute. And moreover, the coalition also brought about the kind degree of brutality and accompanying legal arrangements that justified and regulated that brutality, unlike any other places in time in history in terms of scale, especially. And so this this particular context of a global economy. This global economy that really brought to entwined Mississippi, Manhattan and Manchester all together. The white supremacist system of differential rights and entitlements, which are really still in effect to this day, and set it apart from other systems of slavery elsewhere in the world, or earlier in history. Here you can see an excerpt from from Chicago defender, the most influential African American newspapers in the US reporting on St. Louis race riots in 1917. This sort of differential rights and entitlements. That's really nicely described here, you can see on the on the screen. Still continue to exist in, in, especially in America. And it's just basically according to, to which even murder can be overlooked and that was really the implication of the protests that took place in spring and summer 2020. But also historians of slavery found striking parallels between oppressive practices of enslaved labor regimes, and today's labor regimes. A number of financial tools such as insurance, especially life and health insurance, originating from slavery management of slavery credit structures and systems that were designed to keep the freight freed slaves and check. This doesn't affect us in the form of punishing bank practices and regulations that important again to to to keep in mind raises a question. This is one important element to to will keep in mind that legacies of slavery are multifaceted and that emerges it happens in every segment every practice that we live today that we have today. And the other important element is, maybe this is something that I will wrap up with shortly that this was really these developments were really not even though took place a practice, mostly in the Atlantic world. They were not confined to the Atlantic world at all. It was transported and transplanted in other parts of the world, put to use in other parts of the world. In other places, effectively, and one famous incident, perhaps, episode that is still not well studied but nevertheless quite famous, the case of Egypt during the American Civil War, which lasted from 1861 to 65. The leaders cotton effectively managed to build a plantation system in Egypt, which produced not only immense amount of cotton almost. All of them were slave produced so we see the slant my plantation system exporting itself to a completely new environment and. They were bringing slaves to produce that cotton as well that the exact model is as as transferred to to another context. This move, as you may guess, also produced numerous indigenous Edward Colston's numerous other slave traders, most famous one, you can see on the screen is Zubeir Pasha in Sudan. So he sets up his trading business right when things were happening, building up that the plantation system was was carried over and set up in Egypt, and he is a local version of of Edward Colston responsible for for me for slave raids, capturing slaves selling them into into into slavery. So he amassed wealth and prestige that really matched with the debt of Edward Colston and served as a governor paradoxically directly pointed by the British colonial government in the region. I couldn't really locate the statue of him in Sudan, but nevertheless, and there is a street and cartoon named after him so he is commemorated in a similar way that Colston is in in Bristol. So in that sense, this particular form of slavery just intimately linked to colonialism imperialism produce similar patterns of oppression violence exploitation, race based value extraction, similar patterns of capital accumulation, so on and so on to other parts of the world, and this is what I would like to to to end this lecture with. So, just to remember that looking into these processes in connection with each other allows us to see what's greater clarity that the exploitative of course of structures that were created by slavery. So I would say the plantation model and its business practices, could be, and in fact, were transported and reproduced in other parts of the world. And in that sense, the presumed confines of the Atlantic or any other world were not always neatly drawn and practices of domination exploitation, did travel around the world. And so I did the ideas of freedom justice took to form alliances and so there it is. So that's really, you know, one question, perhaps to to to think along with these themes. So as with many other modules offered by my colleagues at the department across the school. What did and does connected forms of domination exploitation look like. So the connection connected forms of claims of the justice and the quality look like these are really just real broad questions that is great concern here. How do we approach to such complex multifaceted questions and problems is a methodological question. Historically speaking. We do another perhaps methodological, even ontological question, what does studying history of slavery teach us about the world, and we live in today, slavery, legally speaking, does not exist. This traces its ghost very much exist continues to exist to this day. And with that I mean I guess I can just end here. And we can perhaps continue with Q&A, maybe large want to come in and first introduce himself and then if you want to comment or raise any questions or talk about your own approaches to some of these wider questions as well. Yes, if I can take the word briefly. Well, thank you very much for it was a fascinating session and everyone who's taken part. This is the big conundrum we teach so many interesting things and yet we don't have the opportunity to sit in on our colleagues courses because that there's so much such a rich resource of knowledge that we that we possess and I envy you students who can actually go and study all of this, because we have our own specializations, of course, which we stay faithful to. I mean, the, it was the last comments that you had which I found were most important that slavery is a flexible term. This use in the West is very closely linked to to slavery and antiquity in Mediterranean antiquity as it was, for example, practiced by the Romans, but this coincided in the age of slavery with a, renaissance, if you like, of the second renaissance of antiquity when when people thought it was completely normal, because the great civilizations of the past have been built on slavery systems. So why not the British or the French Empire so this is this is something which is very typical of the West during this time. But you have East Asian civilizations where slavery means something very, very different. And it's, for example, in the Qing Empire, it was a form of punishment, which was uniquely administered to to the Chinese majority Chinese populations were sent to Central Asian nations tribes who who practice and their slavery was only practiced against defeated enemies in battle. So it was not had no economic role at all. And this is something where, you know, you have the same phenomenon but in a different setting. Yes, so I that's more I don't want to say now. Thank you, large. Do you want to introduce yourself as well. My name is large Laman I teach the history of Eastern and Central Asia, and my own research is more focused on the 17th and 18th centuries but, of course, through teaching and related research I go all the way until today. But, but the important thing is that we all try to work together so we have for example the the history seminar. We have also they have the Chinese history seminar where where I always try to invite people who have who do something that goes across Asia, at least so to the other side of the Eurasian continent. Excellent. Thank you. So I mean, we have about 10 more minutes. If you want to raise questions related to the lecture or other, anything else that you might be curious about. Hello, I might have missed this part I got disconnected in the middle wanted to ask if you could please give some examples of how plantation model was transported to the to other areas. So we I mean, I mentioned Egypt Egyptian case. And that's the most famous one in the context of the Middle East, which I specialize on. The, the, the, the transportation or transplantation is directly related to the to the American Civil War, and when the Union blockade takes place at the very beginning of the war. The Britain has no longer access to to self produced cotton. So, they, I mean, this is still early for Egypt to be to be British colony I mean it happens later in 1880s. But nevertheless, Britain has a good amount of control in the region and effectively manages to to move that model over to Egypt, which was already experimenting with new cotton. And so it types of brands, kinds. So it becomes a viable model for for for the Egyptian state as well. And we see I mean again, slavery existed in the region in Egypt already. So the very use of it the very, very meaning of it, and it's economic implication implications changes completely with that move. So this is one example we know other examples from Southeast Asia. And that that mean, of course that region has its own past and experience with different types of plantation like environments but we see that transportation happens pretty easily when, when it's seen as necessary. So that's really the, the, not only the the plantation, but also the, the, as I said, I mean in the lecture the business model that means that there's a very particular way of managing a plantation. It's, it's focused on on on the household. It's also implementing adopting all these scientific management methods, accounting, so on and so forth so I mean this really a business side of this, and this also gets easily transported implemented another place with some modification but but nevertheless that happens. Any, any other questions. Okay, great. So, Lars said, I mean, different parts of the world had had practices, different types of practices in very much happening at the same time. So this is a work on, as I said, slavery in the Middle East. And this is, I mean, slavery exists and practice very much practice during the start of the 19th century as well without a clear economic benefit. Okay, thank you very much, Lars. Thank you for your comments and participation and dropping by. So, slavery is practiced, pretty much everywhere in the world, but the kind of scale and intensity, and the economic implications, and the very fact that it's, it's purely and very rigidly race based is is very peculiar to the Atlantic system. In a sense, it's really is different from other systems of slavery. Thank you. There's no more questions we might unfortunately have to end there because we have one more session. So for anyone who's been sticking around for the whole day there's one more ever and a whole range of talks to. To end with, let me type in my email address here. If you want to reach out to ask questions about the program itself about slavery about global history in the 19th century, about methodological questions. Just please do not hesitate to reach out anytime. Okay. Thank you so much to you and thank you so much to everybody for joining us. We had more students throughout and who were here for the presentation. And so we'll be making sure to send the recording but take care everybody and enjoy the rest of the virtual.