Acknowledgments

The last four years were a rather peculiar time to write about the so-called “peculiar institution.” Two unconnected events occurred in March 2020: I began work on this topic after being appointed as one of the two Research Associates for the University of Cambridge’s Legacies of Enslavement Inquiry, and the United Kingdom enforced the first lockdown for the COVID-19 pandemic. The fact that this book exists at all, therefore, should also be credited to the assistance and support of numerous colleagues, friends, and family.

I want to first thank colleagues who have been integral to the Cambridge inquiry from its inception to completion. Sabine Cadeau, who, along with this author, were the lead researchers for the project, has been a wonderful friend and collaborator throughout the trials and tribulations of the inquiry. Martin Millett, the fearless Chair of the Advisory Group, has many gifts: sage wisdom, kindness, patience, and a magical ability to make things happen in the tangled bureaucratic webs of Cambridge. Bronwen Everill and Nick Guyatt have bravely persevered through sections or offshoots of this book and have been an incredible source of support and encouragement throughout, as they have been for so many early career researchers before me. Sujit Sivasundaram and Peter Mandler were generous with their time and patience as a text on around two-dozen colleges and multiple centuries of Atlantic history glacially took shape. Sarah Pearsall shared her wisdom at the early stages of the project, and her guidance has helped me to find my voice as a historian. From the Cambridge Advisory Group, I also want to thank Ash Amin, Adam Branch, Mark Elliott, Toni Fola-Alade, Mónica Moreno Figueroa, Mark Purcell, Ángel Gurría-Quintana, Sharon Mehari, Priscilla Mensah, Toby Green, Meleisa Ono-George, Olivette Otele, and Diana Paton. Stephen Toope, Cambridge’s former Vice-Chancellor, generously supported the research. At Caius College, I have a debt of gratitude to Annabel Brett, Melissa Calaresu, James Cox, Michelle Ellefson, Michael Joseph, Pippa Rogerson, and Ted Tregear.

Beyond the Advisory Group, I was inspired by the expertise and advice of numerous academics from near and far. From the start of the project, Sabine and I were lucky to meet William Whyte and Mishka Sinha at St John’s College, Oxford, and compare findings on institutional connections to enslavement and colonialism with colleagues from the “other place.” I received much-welcome words of encouragement during my “fifteen minutes” of academic fame from Corinne Fowler and Michael Taylor. I also want to thank Laura Channing, Kate Ekema, and Joseph La Hausse de Lalouvière for the many coffees and expert advice that they have provided over the years (in Laura’s case, many years!). Towards the end of the writing process, I was lucky to (virtually) meet Christopher Jeppesen and benefit from his expertise on Jesus and Trinity colleges. The September 2022 ‘Envisioning Reparations’ conference provided an opportunity to present the research findings and meet with international experts on enslavement and reparations – and I want to thank Sabine and Nicki Dawidowski for their heroic efforts in ensuring that the event was such a great success. At the conference, I met Michael Banner, the Dean of Trinity College, and I have learnt a great deal from his findings on student connections to enslavement. The early career research network of historians working on the history of enslavement and its afterlives, which had its inaugural meeting at the University of Hull in November 2022, was another wonderful moment to engage with scholars in the field – and provided Sabine and I the opportunity to share notes about our experiences of working at Cambridge. Although a career opportunity in New Orleans has sadly curtailed my involvement in that organisation, I want to thank Cassandra Gooptar and Isabel Robinson for doing the impossible and building a community during a pandemic. At Tulane University, I want to thank Marcia Walker-McWilliams and Cécile Yézou for their continued support and encouragement.

This institutional history of enslavement has (surprise, surprise) benefitted from the generosity of numerous institutions both within and beyond Cambridge. First, I cannot thank enough the many archivists and external researchers who were integral to the project and are the lifeblood of the profession, including Robert Athol at Jesus College, Rupert Baker at the Royal Society, Anna Crutchley at Trinity Hall, Tom Davies at King’s College, Adolphus Depass at the National Library of Jamaica, Tim Evenden at the East Sussex Record Office, Katy Green at Magdalene College, Joseph Hettrick, Evie Stevenson, and Hannah Cliel at the Bank of England, Jayne Hoare at the Cambridgeshire Archives, Philippa Hoskin at Corpus Christi College, Roger Hull from Liverpool, Asma Iftikhar at the Cadbury Research Library in Birmingham, Mandi Johnson at Sewanee, Gaye Morgan at All Souls College, Jonathan Smith and Diana Smith at Trinity College, Lucy Thomas at Christ’s College, and Hannah Westall at Girton College. Many of these institutions kindly allowed me to reproduce images from their collections in the text. At the Cambridge University Press, I am indebted to Michael Watson, Rosa Martin, and the two anonymous peer-reviewers who have helped to transform what was a shorter institutional report into a book manuscript.

I could not be where I am today without my friends and family. From Caius, I am so grateful to Helen, Martin, Lander, Nik, and Amelia who have been with me since I started my doctorate. I want to also thank Lewis, Sarah, Sam, Lindsey, Megan, and Ali. They have made my time in Cambridge so special. The five-a-side-football lads – including Kris, Tim, Erik, Michael, Niall, Hugh, Caleb, and Blake – have kept me (almost) sane and distracted – and generously tolerated my fondness for long-range shots and passes that I should not be attempting. Though separated by lockdowns and geographic distance, my family in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States have been supportive when the world was in such turmoil. I always enjoyed sitting down and chatting to my parents on the phone or, when they were finally able to visit the UK, sharing a pint at the pub. They were always able to place everything in perspective, whether personal matters or the research, and put me back on track when I was close to (what felt like) a mental breakdown.

Returning to where I started, in March 2020, I should mention another much more important and noteworthy life moment than a multi-year pandemic or an esoteric academic project: I first moved in with my then partner and now wife, Evelyn Strope. Her love inspires me every day. I want to thank her with all my heart.