Heiresses: Marriage, Inheritance and Caribbean Slavery

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

From Jamaica to Charleston, Sierra Leone to Bombay, China to Australia, back to England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, this is the story of the heiresses.


Their assets, the product of the exploitation of enslaved Africans, enabled them to marry into the top tiers of the aristocracy and attracted the attention of fortune-hunters. They fell in love (not always with their husbands), eloped, divorced, squandered fortunes, threw parties, went mad and (in once case) faked a daughters death.


Heiresses explores the Caribbean Marriage Trade, tracing tainted money from its origins in slavery to its disposal on country homes, paintings and philanthropic ventures. After slavery was abolished in 1834, British slave-owners were compensated to the tune of 20 million, incurring a government debt that was only fully paid off in 2015. Miranda Kaufmann examines how slave-produced wealth came into Britain, not as a result of men setting out to establish plantations or trade in slaves, but by choosing to enter into the contract of matrimony: for better or for worse, for richer, but not for poorer.

Author Bio

Miranda Kaufmannis a Senior Research Fellow at theUniversity of Londons Institute of Commonwealth Studies. Her first book, Black Tudors, was shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize 2018 and was A Book of the Year for the Evening Standard and the Observer. She has appeared onSky News,the BBCandAl Jazeera, and shes written forThe Times,GuardianandBBC History Magazine. She lives in North Wales.