POPULARITY
In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Padraic Scanlan. Padraic is an associate professor at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on the history of labor in Britain and the British empire. He's the author of three books, including Freedom's Debtors: British Antislavery in Sierra Leone in the Age of Revolutions and Slave Empire: How Slavery Made Modern Britain. His newest book, out this year, is called Rot: An Imperial History of the Irish Famine, and it offers a reinterpretation of the Irish Great Famine of the mid-1800s that shows how massive income inequality, debt, housing prices, precarious employment and more contributed to the disaster. I spoke with Padraic about how he thinks about writing for a general audience, his work with a developmental editor and why he loves editors, and his writerly inspirations.
What was the British abolition of the slave trade like in practice? Padraic Scanlan, in his beautifully-written first book, Freedom’s Debtors: British Antislavery in Sierra Leone in the Age of Revolution (Yale University Press, 2017), explores the bureaucratic, economic, and military consequences of translating abolition law into lived reality for the British colony of Sierra Leone. It overturns highly moralistic notions of British antislavery and reveals the murkier, at times frenzied, and extremely profitable realities of abolition that paved the way for an exploitative and violent colonial history in Africa. Louise Moschetta is a PhD student at the University of Cambridge, working on Indian indentured labour in the British imperial world and beyond. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What was the British abolition of the slave trade like in practice? Padraic Scanlan, in his beautifully-written first book, Freedom’s Debtors: British Antislavery in Sierra Leone in the Age of Revolution (Yale University Press, 2017), explores the bureaucratic, economic, and military consequences of translating abolition law into lived reality for the British colony of Sierra Leone. It overturns highly moralistic notions of British antislavery and reveals the murkier, at times frenzied, and extremely profitable realities of abolition that paved the way for an exploitative and violent colonial history in Africa. Louise Moschetta is a PhD student at the University of Cambridge, working on Indian indentured labour in the British imperial world and beyond. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What was the British abolition of the slave trade like in practice? Padraic Scanlan, in his beautifully-written first book, Freedom’s Debtors: British Antislavery in Sierra Leone in the Age of Revolution (Yale University Press, 2017), explores the bureaucratic, economic, and military consequences of translating abolition law into lived reality for the British colony of Sierra Leone. It overturns highly moralistic notions of British antislavery and reveals the murkier, at times frenzied, and extremely profitable realities of abolition that paved the way for an exploitative and violent colonial history in Africa. Louise Moschetta is a PhD student at the University of Cambridge, working on Indian indentured labour in the British imperial world and beyond. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What was the British abolition of the slave trade like in practice? Padraic Scanlan, in his beautifully-written first book, Freedom’s Debtors: British Antislavery in Sierra Leone in the Age of Revolution (Yale University Press, 2017), explores the bureaucratic, economic, and military consequences of translating abolition law into lived reality for the British colony of Sierra Leone. It overturns highly moralistic notions of British antislavery and reveals the murkier, at times frenzied, and extremely profitable realities of abolition that paved the way for an exploitative and violent colonial history in Africa. Louise Moschetta is a PhD student at the University of Cambridge, working on Indian indentured labour in the British imperial world and beyond. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What was the British abolition of the slave trade like in practice? Padraic Scanlan, in his beautifully-written first book, Freedom’s Debtors: British Antislavery in Sierra Leone in the Age of Revolution (Yale University Press, 2017), explores the bureaucratic, economic, and military consequences of translating abolition law into lived reality for the British colony of Sierra Leone. It overturns highly moralistic notions of British antislavery and reveals the murkier, at times frenzied, and extremely profitable realities of abolition that paved the way for an exploitative and violent colonial history in Africa. Louise Moschetta is a PhD student at the University of Cambridge, working on Indian indentured labour in the British imperial world and beyond. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices