{"id":271,"date":"2018-10-01T09:01:22","date_gmt":"2018-10-01T08:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/?p=271"},"modified":"2024-08-31T17:06:31","modified_gmt":"2024-08-31T16:06:31","slug":"on-white-fury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/2018\/10\/01\/on-white-fury\/","title":{"rendered":"On White Fury"},"content":{"rendered":"

October sees the publication of Christer Petley\u2019s major new study of slavery and abolition. His book tells the story of the struggle over slavery in the British empire \u2014 as told through the rich, expressive, and frequently shocking letters of one of the wealthiest British slaveholders ever to have lived. Here, Christer reflects on the choice of the title: White Fury<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The title of the book was decided late on. \u2018Slavery and Revolution\u2019 was my working title throughout the writing process. But with the manuscript completed, the press wanted a change, and we eventually agreed on White Fury: A Jamaican Slaveholder and the Age of Revolution<\/em>. The book, as the title makes clear, is about a slaveholder: Simon Taylor. It is also about more than that \u2014 it seeks to examine British slavery and the late eighteenth-century revolutions that helped bring it down.<\/p>\n

Here, I reflect on why White Fury <\/em>is an appropriate title for a history book about Taylor, and I add a few thoughts about why I think understanding his white fury matters to us in the present.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2018Am I Not a Man and a Brother?\u2019, abolitionist slogan and emblem, c.1788.<\/p>\n

By the year 1807, Simon Taylor\u2019s anger was running hot. This old white slaveholder was, by then, approaching seventy, and the abolitionist campaign, which he had vehemently opposed since it first began two decades earlier, was on the brink of a major success. After many years of debate, the imperial parliament in London was poised to put an end to the transatlantic slave trade. It pitched Taylor into a state of incandescent fury.<\/p>\n

From his home in the British colony of Jamaica, he had long raged against abolitionists. To him the figurehead of the anti-slave-trade campaign, William Wilberforce, was a \u2018hell-begotten imp\u2019, spreading \u2018infernal nonsense\u2019. Taylor continually expressed outrage that such a man had misguidedly taken up the interests of \u2018negroes\u2019 against those of white colonial slaveholders. Taylor had never been able to understand Wilberforce.<\/p>\n

\u2018Am I not a man and a brother?\u2019 was the slogan of the abolition movement, always accompanied by the image of a kneeling African, begging for help \u2014 a message that grabbed imaginations and changed perceptions. But for a man like Taylor, whose wealth was based on buying, selling, and exploiting enslaved Africans, it stoked fear, frustration, and fury.<\/p>\n

Taylor\u2019s view of empire was built around the principles of white supremacy and white solidarity. To men like him, the only people who could be considered \u2018natural born subjects\u2019 of the British Empire, and therefore deserving of its care and protection, were whites; and he considered black people merely as items of property. He struggled to understand how any truly patriotic Briton could see things differently.<\/p>\n

Taylor\u2019s anger is interesting partly because it reveals an untold aspect of the story of British abolition. He was, of course, on the losing side, but wealthy, influential, vocal, and angry slaveholders like him did a lot to shape the debate over slavery. And they won some important concessions.<\/p>\n

But Taylor is important for more reasons than those. The kind of angry reaction to change vocalised by a man like Taylor is not simply a thing of the past. Instead, Taylor\u2019s fear and outrage are often chillingly recognisable. Again and again, between his times and ours, those who have grown up as beneficiaries of white privilege have responded to pressure for equality, increased diversity, and even the most basic of reforms as though those were types of oppression. Institutionalised racism rooted in colonialism and slavery can prove stubborn in the face of challenges. In large part that is because when old white privileges are confronted, indignant white fury \u2014 of the sort that Taylor so luridly expressed \u2014 is rarely far behind.<\/p>\n

Christer Petley<\/strong><\/p>\n

Christer Petley is Professor of Atlantic History at the University of Southampton. White Fury: A Jamaican Slaveholder and the Age of Revolution<\/em> is published by Oxford University Press on 11 October 2018 (\u00a320, ISBN 9780198791638). Christer will be talking about the book in conversation with Dr Richard Benjamin (Liverpool Museums) and Dr Jessica Moody (University of Bristol) at an event hosted by the Department of History at the University of Southampton on 30 October 18.00-19.30, Avenue campus, Lecture Theatre C. Book your place: https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/history\/news\/seminars\/2018\/10\/30-white-fury.page<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October sees the publication of Christer Petley\u2019s major new study of slavery and abolition. His book tells the story of the struggle over slavery in the British empire \u2014 as told through the rich, expressive, and frequently shocking letters of one of the wealthiest British slaveholders ever to have lived. Here, Christer reflects on the choice of the title: White …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3143,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[41,38,40,39,37],"class_list":["post-271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","category-research","tag-blackhistorymonth","tag-empire","tag-jamaica","tag-race","tag-slavery","column","threecol"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9DnLX-4n","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":39,"url":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/2018\/01\/31\/sweet-tooth\/","url_meta":{"origin":271,"position":0},"title":"Sweet Tooth","author":"George Gilbert","date":"31st January 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Christer Petley has recently collaborated with a renowned vocal artist, Elaine Mitchener, who has created a disturbingly powerful piece of performance art, Sweet Tooth, about British-Caribbean slavery and its legacies. The project has reworked archival text, drawn from Christer\u2019s research, in performances with the acclaimed jazz saxophonist Jason Yarde, percussionist\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2018\/01\/Unknown-300x287.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":46,"url":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/2018\/01\/31\/how-a-history-of-conquest-shapes-the-present\/","url_meta":{"origin":271,"position":1},"title":"How a History of Conquest Shapes the Present","author":"Charlotte Riley","date":"31st January 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"One of our modern history lecturers, Dr Charlotte Lydia Riley, has written a piece with Professor Gurminder K. Bhambra about the legacies of the British empire in modern British culture. What do we mean when we talk about \u201cempire\u201d? We use the narratives of imperialism to describe everything from British\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comment and debate"","block_context":{"text":"Comment and debate","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/category\/comment-and-debate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2018\/01\/1705-1-Cover-web-240x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":873,"url":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/2025\/10\/17\/dr-charlotte-riley-wins-prestigious-prize\/","url_meta":{"origin":271,"position":2},"title":"Dr Charlotte Riley Wins Prestigious Prize","author":"Craig Lambert","date":"17th October 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"History\u2019s Charlotte Lydia Riley has won a very prestigious award from the American Historical Association. The prize is for her the American edition of her book,\u00a0Imperial Island: An Alternative History of the British Empire\u00a0(Harvard University Press, 2024). The prize is the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize for an author\u2019s first book\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Notes from the archive"","block_context":{"text":"Notes from the archive","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/category\/notes-from-the-archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2025\/10\/image-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":824,"url":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/2025\/08\/22\/political-witchcraft\/","url_meta":{"origin":271,"position":3},"title":"Political Witchcraft","author":"Craig Lambert","date":"22nd August 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"On 13 August, Southampton University hosted \u2018Political Witchcraft: Magic and the Politics of Representation,\u2019 an evening of public talks exploring how magical beliefs and practices have been researched, debated, and distorted by various interested parties at different times and places in history. Dr David Cox organised the event from Southampton\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Notes from the archive"","block_context":{"text":"Notes from the archive","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/category\/notes-from-the-archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2025\/08\/image-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2025\/08\/image-2.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2025\/08\/image-2.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2025\/08\/image-2.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":713,"url":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/2024\/03\/13\/british-museum-exhibition-exposes-hypocrisy-of-new-loan-agreements-for-looted-objects\/","url_meta":{"origin":271,"position":4},"title":"British Museum exhibition exposes hypocrisy of new loan agreements for looted\u00a0objects","author":"Nathan Bossoh","date":"13th March 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"On February the 15th\u00a0the British Museum opened\u00a0Rediscovering Gems, a new small exhibition displaying a range of prized ancient Roman and Greek artefacts. The prompt for this exhibition stemmed from an announcement last year which revealed that numerous pieces from the museum\u2019s collection were missing, stolen or damaged. Some of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Notes from the archive"","block_context":{"text":"Notes from the archive","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/category\/notes-from-the-archive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2024\/03\/BM-Picture1-Nathan-Bossoh-blog.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2024\/03\/BM-Picture1-Nathan-Bossoh-blog.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2024\/03\/BM-Picture1-Nathan-Bossoh-blog.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2024\/03\/BM-Picture1-Nathan-Bossoh-blog.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":302,"url":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/2018\/11\/15\/envisioning-emperors\/","url_meta":{"origin":271,"position":5},"title":"Envisioning Emperors","author":"Eve Colpus","date":"15th November 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Alan Ross is currently a visiting scholar in the Classics Department at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, where he is working on Late Antique literary culture. He recently published a co-edited volume with Brill, entitled Imagining Emperors in the Later Roman Empire. Here, he tells us why we need another book\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comment and debate"","block_context":{"text":"Comment and debate","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/category\/comment-and-debate\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/236\/2018\/11\/Ross-cover-197x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions\/283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}