Uprising, abolition and constitutions TT Arvind, Head of York Law School
Event details
Black History Month Lecture
In the popular imagination, the path to abolition of slavery was paved through the work of committed anti-abolitionists, based in Britain. Yet whilst abolitionists did play a key role, as important was the resistance and rebellion of enslaved individuals and groups. These uprisings and the often brutal response to them deeply troubled public opinion in Britain and Europe, and made it increasingly difficult to avoid facing head-on the violent and inhuman nature of the legal regime and constitutional order that sustained slavery and that continued to institutionalise discriminatory and oppressive regimes even after slavery's abolition.
This talk, part of York Law School's public events for Black History Month, will tell the story of uprisings that occurred both before and after abolition, the persons involved in them, and the manner in which they raised fundamental questions in Britain and Europe about true nature of their country's much-cherished commitment to liberty.
About the speaker
TT Arvind is Professor of Law and Head of Department at York Law School. He joined York in September 2007 as one of the founding members of the law school and returned to it in September 2018, after spending six years at Newcastle from 2012-2018.
He has also previously worked at the University of East Anglia, and spent some time in commercial practice in India.
His research draws on frameworks from across the social sciences to develop new ways of understanding the relationship between law, individuals, and governing bodies, particularly in the context of commercial societies.