NELSON and the SLAVE TRADE by Chris Brett

In recent years Admiral Lord Nelson’s reputation has come under close examination, in light of Britain’s colonial past and slave trade history. Nelson has been accused of being racist, a white supremacist and pro-slavery. The source of many of these accusations is a private letter, which Nelson penned from his cabin on HMS Victory in June 1805, to a long standing acquaintance on Jamaica, the wealthy plantation owner, Simon Taylor.

In this book Chris Brett examines the evidence behind those claims and reveals how Nelson’s letter was subsequently forged by the West India planters, after Nelson’s death, in an attempt to use Nelson’s posthumous reputation to influence debates on the abolition of the slave trade on 1807. The book also demonstrates how the trap laid by the West India slave traders still influences opinion today and is being used in the current debates about those involved in the Britain’s colonial past.

The fight for his reputation is Nelson’s final battle.

The book is available on Amazon.

What they are saying about ‘Nelson and the Slave Trade’

‘An important work … ground-breaking stuff’

PEREGRINE NELSON HOOD, PRESIDENT OF THE NELSON SOCIETY

‘A critical study that demonstrates that Lord Nelson did not support the slave trade’

ANDREW LAMBERT, LAUGHTON PROFESSOR OF NAVAL HISTORY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR STUDIES, KING’S COLLEGE, AND AUTHOR OF ‘NELSON: BRITANNIA’S GOD OF WAR’

‘A timely contribution .which represents about all we know of its subject at the present time ……A valuable addition to the libraries of Nelson scholars and buffs ….’

DR JOHN SUGDEN, AUTHOR OF ‘NELSON: A DREAM OF GLORY’ AND ‘NELSON: THE SWORD OF ALBION’.