Magdalene Legacies of Enslavement Research

As part of ongoing work on our history, the College is making research from our Legacies of Enslavement project available in interim reports.

In 2019 Magdalene began a scoping project as part of its Legacies of Enslavement research. The project covers the years 1650 to 1850 and is led by the Pepys Librarian, Dr M E J Hughes.

The main research was undertaken by research assistants, Ms Mandy Marvin and Ms Alice Whitehead, with additional guidance by Dr Hughes, Mrs Catherine Sutherland, Deputy Pepys Librarian, and Mrs Katy Green, College Archivist.

The research focuses on whether there is evidence that the College received financial benefit from the transatlantic slave trade and from slavery linked to colonial expansion. The findings presented here relate to that question and should be understood within this scope. It is important to recognise that the term slavery has a broad meaning, covering many systems of forced labour across different periods and places. This research did not attempt to address that full history.
 

Legacies of Enslavement Research Report One

The initial scoping investigation examined what materials, if any, could be found in the Archive and College collections that related to a series of provisional headings:

• memorials and monuments
• naming (e.g. of prizes, buildings)
• benefactions (e.g. for the establishment of Fellowships, studentships)
• gifts of silverware.

The purpose of the work was to consider whether it would be fruitful to proceed to a more detailed investigation.

Legacies of Enslavement Interim Report One

Legacies of Enslavement Research Report Two

Continuing the project, research focused on two specific areas:

• the seventeenth-century benefactor Samuel Pepys
• eighteenth- and nineteenth- century benefactors or other figures with close links to the College, including those connected with the endowment and naming of scholarships.

Legacies of Enslavement Interim Report Two

Peter Peckard

As further study, two blog posts on the early abolitionist Peter Peckard, who served as Master of Magdalene until his death in 1797, were researched and written by the Pepys Librarian and the late Professor Ronald Hyam, Emeritus Archivist.

• Peckard, Equiano and the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade – Part I
• Peckard, Equiano and the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade – Part II

Current Research

The next phase of the project will look at material in the Old Library, with a focus on the extensive Ferrar papers. The Ferrar family served as deputies of the Virginia Company until 1625 and were involved in the establishment of colonial Bermuda, (Somers Isles).

The scoping project was funded by the generosity of the Centre for History and Economics. The continuing project is funded by Magdalene College.