In the News
Articles and features about The Slave Trader and the research behind it.
A four-page Reader Story feature by Claire Vaughan in the November issue. It tells how a 1595 Geneva Breeches Bible that had belonged to Ben’s grandfather, Arthur Shaw, set him on nearly ten years of research, and led him to two ancestors on opposite sides of the trade that turned Liverpool into a thriving city: the merchant Bryan Blundell, and the Reverend Christopher Bassnett, whose sermon to Blundell decried his part in it. The feature includes a family tree tracing both lines down to Ben.
Issue 249 is available in print and as a digital edition through the magazine’s app.
A third guest post for Pen & Sword, written for Black History Month. Ben reflects on confronting the uncomfortable truths behind Liverpool’s prosperity, drawing on Blundell’s sea journal, which shows he saw slavery at first hand in Barbados, Nevis, Maryland and Virginia, and on Christopher Bassnett’s 1711 sermon. He asks why people come to accommodate practices they know to be deeply problematic, and what that means for legacy, memory and responsibility today.
James Smith reports on The Slave Trader and how Bryan Blundell’s sea journal, held at Lancashire Archives, traces his rise from a twelve-year-old at sea to twice Mayor of Liverpool, and his part in the town’s growing slave trade. The piece also covers the sold-out launch at the Bluecoat in September and Ben’s signing at Kenilworth Books, Talisman Square, on Saturday 17 October.
A feature in the LostCousins newsletter on how a 1595 Geneva Breeches Bible set Ben on the trail of his 8x great-grandfather, Bryan Blundell, and into the interrelated merchant families of early Liverpool. It covers Blundell’s sea journal at Lancashire Archives, the Blue Coat School, his part in the transatlantic slave trade, and the preacher Christopher Bassnett, from whom Ben is also descended. A recommended read for anyone with Liverpool ancestors.
LostCousins is a free website that puts family historians in touch with living relatives researching the same ancestors, by matching the people members enter from the census. Its regular newsletter is packed with genealogy news, record releases and research tips. If you are tracing your family tree, it is well worth joining.
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Rosemary Collins reports on the launch of the Register of British Slave-traders, the five-year project led by Professor William Pettigrew that accompanies David Olusoga’s BBC documentary. Ben is quoted on finding his 8x great-grandfather Bryan Blundell in the register, and on an error in the entry: the voyages listed for 1771 belong to Blundell’s son of the same name, not to the man who died in 1756.
A second guest post for Pen & Sword, on Bryan Blundell and the Reverend Christopher Bassnett, whose 1711 sermon questioned the morality of slavery decades before abolition, and on what it means to be descended from both men.
Ben joins Giles Brown on Talk Radio Europe to talk about The Slave Trader: Bryan Blundell’s rise from cabin boy to twice Mayor of Liverpool, the Blue Coat School he helped found, his part in the transatlantic slave trade, and the family research that uncovered it all.
Oliver Williams reports on the years of research behind the book, and on Ben’s signing at Kenilworth Books in October.
A guest post by Ben for his publisher, on how family history research led him to a Liverpool merchant, and to the sea journal that changed everything.
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