George Hibbert M.P. (1757-1837) and the Defence of British Slavery

George Hibbert was an early and powerful defender of the slave trade and later slavery. He was a Chairman of the West India Merchants Society, a Member of Parliament between 1806-1812, and Agent for Jamaica between 1812-1832. His family had been involved with the business of slavery for generations. As early as 1790 he campaigned for the payment of compensation for those whose livelihoods depended on the labour of enslaved people. This talk will look at the different strategies used by Hibbert to delay the ending of slavery, as well as to ensure that the government compensated the slave-owners for their ‘property in people’.

Speaker: Dr Katie Donington

Dr Katie Donington was awarded a PhD in History (2013) from University College London based on her work on the Hibbert family. She is a co-author of The Legacies of British Slave-ownership: Colonial Slavery and the Formation of Victorian Britain.

She was a Research Associate on the Legacies of British Slave-ownership project between 2013-2015, where her focus was on slave-ownership in Jamaica. She is a co-author of The Legacies of British Slave-ownership: Colonial Slavery and the Formation of Victorian Britain. She is currently a Research Associate with the Antislavery Usable Past project at the University of Nottingham.

This event is the fourth of eight talks in the series titled The British Business of Slavery, curated by Deborah Lavin.

Tickets: individual tickets £5, students and participating society members £3. Series ticket £30, students and participating society members £21.