Transatlantic Austen: Slavery and the British Navy in Persuasion

This essay argues that Jane Austen's Persuasion critiques the British Navy's problematic history of involvement in Atlantic slavery following the passage of the 1807 Slave Trade Act. Drawing on new historical evidence, the essay suggests that Captain Frederick Wentworth, Persuasion 's male hero, can be understood as implicated in the Atlantic slave trade's economic networks, thereby linking his naval success to the wider ethical framework of the imperial economy. The novel's critical assessment of the British Navy's ties to Atlantic slavery gestures toward an acknowledgment of history—a step Austen may have viewed as a prerequisite for progress, while still allowing for her familial ties to the navy and her personal sympathy for the service.