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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-and the role they played in the history of enslavement.Through the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it was a fact universally acknowledged that any man in want of a great fortune ought to find himself a Caribbean heiress. 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 daughter's death.
In her much anticipated follow up to Black Tudors, Miranda Kaufmann peers beneath our pastel-hued, Jane Austen inspired image of the Georgian heiress to reveal a murky world of inheritance, fortune-hunting and human exploitation. Uncovering the lives of nine women who inherited people and plantations in the Caribbean, Heiresses provides a compelling and often shocking account of how Britain profited and continues to profit from enslavement. 'A sobering and significant achievement, this is a book you need to read.' Lucy Worsley 'A startling insight into the lives of the real “Mrs Rochesters”. The role of women in plantation slavery, as perpetrators and victims is uncovered by a historian at the height of her powers.' Anita Anand, author of The Patient Assassin and co-host of Empire 'A perfect balance of critical humour and searing historical insight. A must-read.' Paterson Joseph, actor and author of The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho 'Vivid, shocking and compulsively readable... Miranda Kaufmann is not just a fine investigative historian – she is a superb story-teller.' Alex Renton, author of Blood Legacy More Reviews |
