'Fantastic ... the most important book on Black British history' - Akala
Black People in the British Empire is a challenge to the official version of British history. It tells the story of Britain's exploitation and oppression of its subject peoples in its colonies, and in particular the people of Africa, Asia and Australasia
Peter Fryer reveals how the ideology of racism was used as justification for acquiring and expanding the Empire; how the British Industrial Revolution developed out of profits from the slave trade; and how the colonies were deliberately de-industrialised to create a market for British manufacturers.
In describing the frequency and the scale of revolts by subject peoples against slavery and foreign domination- and the brutality used in crushing them- Peter Fryer exposes the true history of colonialism, and restores to Black people their central role in Britain's past.
Reviews:
'As this sequel to
Staying Power demonstrates so succinctly, there is no separate entity called 'black history', just versions and perspectives that have been air-brushed out of the official narrative. Britain's history is littered with gaping holes - hidden histories and her-stories that have yet to be told or unearthed. In drawing our attention to the experience of countless subjugated people who were deemed part of its sprawling empire, Peter Fryer has shown, once again, that he has earned his credentials' -Stella Dadzie, co-author of
A Kick in the Belly: Women Slavery and Resistance, and winner of the the Martin Luther King Award for Literature
Peter Fryer (1927-2006) was a British writer and journalist, whose coverage of the arrival of citizens from the Caribbean onboard the HMT Empire Windrush led to a deep and long-lasting interest in the histories of Black Britons. In 1984, he wrote the classic book Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain (Pluto, 2018).
