Professor Douglas Hamilton

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Professor Douglas Hamilton FRHistS, FHEA

Professor of History


Summary

Douglas Hamilton is Professor of History at Sheffield Hallam University and is an historian of enslavement and emancipation, and the eighteenth-century British Atlantic empire

About

I joined SHU as Head of History in 2016, having worked at the Universities of Hull and Winchester.  I am an historian of the eighteenth-century British Atlantic empire, and I’m particularly interested in the Caribbean and slavery. I'm currently working on two projects: one is 'An empire of islands' funded by the AHRC which explores how islands contributed to the establishment, extension, and maintenance of the British Empire in the Age of Sail. The second project assesses the role of the Royal Navy in 18th-century Caribbean society.

Slavery and anti-slavery, Caribbean, Atlantic World, Islands, Empires


Teaching

Department of Humanities

College of Social Sciences and Arts

BA History; BA English & History

History

Research

The Royal Navy in the 18th-century Caribbean

An Empire of Islands: concepts, contexts and collections (with the University of Southampton and the NAtional Maritime Museum, funded by the AHRC ref: AH/N003225/1)


National Maritime Museum, Greenwich; Arts & Humanities Research Council

Publications

Hamilton, D. (2011). Local Connections, Global Ambitions: Creating a Transoceanic Network in the Eighteenth-Century British Atlantic Empire. International Journal of Maritime History, 23 (2), 283-300. http://doi.org/10.1177/084387141102300214

Hamilton, D. (2004). Private enterprise and public service: Naval contracting in the Caribbean, 1720–50. Journal for Maritime Research, 6 (1), 37-64. http://doi.org/10.1080/21533369.2004.9668336

Book chapters

Hamilton, D., & McAleer, J. (2021). Islands and the British Empire in the Age of Sail. In Islands and the British Empire in the Age of Sail. Oxford University Press

Hamilton, D. (2021). 'Sailing in the same uncertain sea': The WIndward Islands of the Caribbean. In Islands and the British Empire in the Age of Sail. Oxford University Press

(2021). Introduction. In Hamilton, D., & McAleer, J. (Eds.) Islands and the British Empire in the Age of Sail. (pp. 1-C1.P39). Oxford University PressOxford: http://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198847229.003.0001

Hamilton, D. (2019). Brothers in arms: Crossing imperial boundaries in the eighteenth-century Dutch West Indies. In Barczewski, S., & Farr, M. (Eds.) The MacKenzie moment and imperial history: Essays in honour of John M MacKenzie. Basingstoke: Palgrave: http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24459-0

Hamilton, D. (2016). Scotland, Darien and imperial ambition. In Mackenzie, J.M., & Dalziel, N. (Eds.) The Encyclopedia of empire. (9781118455074). Wiley-Blackwell

Hamilton, D. (2016). The Caribbean, 1624-1838. In MacKenzie, J.M., & Dalziel, N. (Eds.) The Encyclopedia of Empire A-C. Wiley-Blackwell

Hamilton, D.J. (2014). 'Defending the colonies against malicious attacks of philanthropy': Scottish campaigns against the abolitions of the slave trade and slavery. In Macinnes, A.I., & Hamilton, D.J. (Eds.) Jacobitism, enlightenment and empire, 1680-1820. (pp. 193-208). London: Pickering & Chatto

MacInnes, A.I., & Hamilton, D.J. (2014). Introduction: identity, mobility and competing patriotisms. In Macinnes, A.I., & Hamilton, D.J. (Eds.) Jacobitism, enlightenment and empire, 1680-1820. (pp. 1-12). London: Pickering & Chatto

Hamilton, D. (2013). Rivalry, war and imperial reform in the eighteenth-century Caribbean. In Palmie, S., & Scarano, F. (Eds.) The Caribbean A History of the Region and Its Peoples. University of Chicago Press

Hamilton, D. (2012). Scotland the the eighteenth-century empire. In Devine, T., & Wormald, J. (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Modern Scottish History. (pp. 423-438). Oxford University Press

Hamilton, D. (2011). Dreams of empire: Scotland, Caledonia and the emporium of the Indies’. In Munro-Landi, M. (Ed.) L'Ecosse et ses doubles Ancien monde - nouveau monde - Old World - New World Scotland and its Doubles. Editions L'Harmattan

(2010). Imagining Transatlantic Slavery. Palgrave Macmillan UK: http://doi.org/10.1057/9780230277106

Hamilton, D. (2006). Transatlantic Ties: Scottish migrant networks in the Caribbean, 1750-1800’. In McCarthy, A. (Ed.) A Global Clan Scottish Migrant Networks and Identities Since the Eighteenth Century. I. B. Tauris

Hamilton, D. (2003). Robert Melville and the frontiers of empire in the British West Indies, 1763-1771’. In MacKillop, A., & Murdoch, S. (Eds.) Military Governors and Imperial Frontiers C. 1600-1800 A Study of Scotland and Empires. BRILL

Hamilton, D. (2001). Scottish trading in the Caribbean: the rise and fall of Houstoun & Co. In Landsman, N. (Ed.) Nation and Province in the First British Empire Scotland and the Americas, 1600-1800. Bucknell University Press

Books

Hamilton, D. (2027). The Royal Navy and Slavery in the Caribbean: Securing Britain’s Enslaved Empire. Bloomsbury.

Hamilton, D., & McAleer, J. (Eds.). (2021). Islands and the British Empire in the Age of Sail. Oxford University Press, USA. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/islands-and-the-british-empire-in-the-age-of-sail-9780198847229?lang=en&cc=us

Hamilton, D., & McAleer, J. (Eds.). (2021). Islands and the British Empire in the Age of Sail. Oxford University Press, USA. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/islands-and-the-british-empire-in-the-age-of-sail-9780198847229?lang=en&cc=us

Hamilton, D., & McAleer, J. (Eds.). (2021). Islands and the British Empire in the Age of Sail. Oxford University PressOxford. http://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198847229.001.0001

Hamilton, D.J. (2016). Scotland, the Caribbean and the Atlantic world 1750-1820.

MacInnes, A.I., & Hamilton, D. (Eds.). (2014). Jacobitism, enlightenment and empire, 1680-1820. London: Pickering & Chatto.

MacInnes, A.I., & Hamilton, D. (Eds.). (2014). Jacobitism, enlightenment and empire, 1680-1820. London: Pickering & Chatto.

Hamilton, D. (2010). Scotland, the Caribbean and the Atlantic World, 1750-1820. Manchester University Press.

Hamilton, D.J., & Blyth, R.J. (2007). Representing Slavery Art, Artefacts and Archives in the Collections of the National Maritime Museum. Lund Humphries Publishers.

Hamilton, D., Hodgson, K., & Quirk, J. (Eds.). (n.d.). Slavery, Memory and Identity. Routledge. http://doi.org/10.4324/9781315655406

Hamilton, D., Hodgson, K., & Quirk, J. (Eds.). (n.d.). Slavery, Memory and Identity. Routledge. http://doi.org/10.4324/9781315655406

Internet Publications

Hamilton, D. (2022). The Creole Archipelago: Race and Borders in the Colonial Caribbean. [Book Review]. http://interamerica.de/current-issue/bookreviewhamilton/

Hamilton, D. (2010). Darien investors and colonists (act. 1695–1707). http://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/95261

Hamilton, D. (n.d.). Representations of Slavery. http://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199730414-0135

Other publications

Hamilton, D. (2014). Justin Roberts. Slavery and the Enlightenment in the British Atlantic, 1750–1807. Oxford University Press (OUP): http://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/119.4.1229

Hamilton, D. (2013). In the Eye of All Trade: Bermuda, Bermudians, and the Maritime Atlantic World, 1680-1783. Michael Jarvis. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2010. 684 pp. (Cloth US$ 65.00). Brill: http://doi.org/10.1163/22134360-12340021

Postgraduate supervision

Lindsay Doulton, ‘The Royal Navy’s anti-slavery campaign in the western Indian Ocean, c. 1860-1890: race, empire and identity’ 2010 (AHRC CDA funding)

Angel Smith, ‘An anatomy of a slave society in transition: The British Virgin Islands, 1807-
1856’, 2011 (British Virgin Islands government funding)

Mary Wills, ‘The Royal Navy and the suppression of the Atlantic Slave Trade, c. 1807-1870: anti-slavery, empire and identity’, 2012 (AHRC CDA funding)

Angelina Osborne, ‘Symbols of Power: a study of the West India Committee 1783-1833’, 2014 (University of Hull scholarship)

Ryan Hanley, ‘Social and Political Influences on Black Writers in Britain, 1770-1830’ (University of Hull scholarship) 2015

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