Alison Clark (2021 Jerimiah Dalziel Prize in British History.)

Thesis title: Expanding the Boundaries of Empire, 1790-1838: Scottish Traders in the Southeast Caribbean and the rise of Sandbach Tinne & Co.

Biography

Background

Alison Clark is a PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh. Alison Graduated in 1984 with a degree in Environmental Science from Liecester Polytechnic, and in 1994 with a MSc in Forest Management from the University of Aberdeen. As she worked in conservation and forestry in Highland Perthshire she developed an interest in the history of land use and ownership in the Scottish Highlands. In 1999 she retrained and worked as a teacher. Alison is currently undertaking doctoral research into  West Indian Merchants in the final decades of slavery, from the  French revolutionary wars and the Napoleonic wars to the end of the British slave trade in 1807 and eventual emancipation in the 1830's.  The focus of her study is the Anglo-Scottish firm which became known as Sandbach Tinne;  the early establishment of the firm in Guyana and the links and legacies, particularly in Scotland. Supervisor Prof. Nuala Zahedieh, Prof. Diana Paton, Dr. Alexander Murdoch and Dr Sonia Tyko.

Qualifications

Bsc Science and the Environment, Leicester Polytechnic

MSc Forest Management, University of Aberdeen

PGCE Primary Education, University of Sunderland

Responsibilities & affiliations

Scottish Centre for Diaspora Studies

Edinburgh Centre for Global History

Diaspora Studies Graduate Workshops

Research summary

Links between Scotland and the Caribbean during the period of slavery and indenture.

West Indies Merchants, and in particular cotton merchants, in the Glasgow and Clyde area.

Legacies in Scotland and Guyana from the period of slavery and indenture.

Knowledge exchange

April 2019 - Alison shared her research in a workshop hosted by the Edinburgh Centre for Global History: Slavery, Gender, Capitalism in the Early Modern World: a workshop with Jennifer Morgan (Howard University). She presented a paper entitled Sandbach Tinne & Co.: the infancy of a mulit-national company.

April 2020 - Alison shared her reserch in a workshop hosted by the Edinburgh Centre for Global History: Between History and Memory: slavery and race. A workshop with Professor Ana Lucia  Araujo (Duke University). She presented a paper entitled Establishing a regional merchant firm in the Scottish Atlantic world.

April 2021 - Alison has shared her research about James McInroy (1759-1825) and his links with Highland Perthshire, Gourock and Demerara in April 2021 at the Scottish Local History Forum's online mini-conference, 'Scotland's involvement in Slavery - the local view'.

 

Conference details

The Sandbach Tinne Project Conference, University of Bristol, 24 -25 October 2023. 'Capitalism and Slavery: Cotton and the Rise of Sandbach Tinne & Co.'

Guyana Speaks Workshop, 'Commemorating the 1823 Demerara Slave Rebellion', Senate House Library, University of London, 19 August 2023. 'Sandbach Tinne & Co. in Guyana: early history 1790-1838.'

British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies Postgraduate Conference, 'Errantry, Exile and Elsewhere', 13-14 July 2023.  'War and Trade in the Southeast Caribbean: The Case of Sandbach Tinne & Co.'

Teaching Slavery in Scotland Workshop, Collaboration between Glasgow University, Edinburgh University and Scottish high school history teachers The Burn, Aberdeenshire, 23-24 September 2022.  'Scottish Caribbean Connections: The Burn in Scotland and The Burn in Jamaica.'

Scottish Local History Forum, .Scotland's Involvement in Slavery: the Local View.' April 2021.  'Links and Legacies between the Scottish Highlands and the Caribbean: The Case of James McInroy (1759-1825)'.

Invited speaker

 

 

Organiser

 

 

Papers delivered

'Capitalism and Slavery: Cotton and the Rise of Sandbach Tinne & Co.'

'Sandbach Tinne & Co. in Guyana: early history 1790-1838.'

 'War and Trade in the Southeast Caribbean: The Case of Sandbach Tinne & Co.'

 'Scottish Caribbean Connections: The Burn in Scotland and The Burn in Jamaica.'

 'Links and Legacies between the Scottish Highlands and the Caribbean: The Case of James McInroy (1759-1825)'.

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