From Jamaica to Charleston, Sierra Leone to Bombay, China to Australia, back to England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, this is the story of the heiresses. Their assets, the product of the exploitation of enslaved Africans, enabled them to marry into the top tiers of the aristocracy and attracted the attention of fortune-hunters. They fell in love (not always with their husbands), eloped, divorced, squandered fortunes, threw parties, went mad and (in once case) faked a daughter’s death. Heiresses explores the Caribbean Marriage Trade, tracing tainted money from its origins in slavery to its disposal on country homes, paintings and philanthropic ventures. After slavery was abolished in 1834, British slave-owners were compensated to the tune of GBP20 million, incurring a government debt that was only fully paid off in 2015. Miranda Kaufmann examines how slave-produced wealth came into Britain, not as a result of men setting out to establish plantations or trade in slaves, but by choosing to enter into the contract of matrimony: for better or for worse, for richer, but not for poorer.
