In the second half of the 17th century, London saw an increasing population of people of African descent, especially enslaved children, some of whom were marked with silver collars in portraits to signify their status as possessions. Through the portrait of Peregrine Tyam with Mary Lawley Verney, this lecture explores how these images help us understand the complex identities of people in late 17th-century England.
About the Speaker: Susan D. Amussen is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of California Merced. She is a historian of early modern Britain and its empire. Her works include An Ordered Society: Gender and Class in Early Modern England (1988); Caribbean Exchanges: Slavery and the Transformation of English Society, 1640-1700 (2007); and Gender, Culture and Politics in England, 1560-1640 (2017). The lecture derives from her current project, entitled “Placing Patriarchy in Early Modern Britain and its Empire” which is a long-term exploration of how patriarchy functioned as a system in early modern England, and how it adapts and evolves in relation to race and other social systems.
Hosted by the Department of History, Dalhousie University, with co-sponsorship of the Early Modern Studies Program.
Painting: Lenthall, Peregrine Tyam with Mary Lawley Verney (1692). Image by permission of the Claydon House Trust.
Inset picture of Dr. Amussen from UCMerced
