According to Bristol Museum Collections, Bristol's official involvement in the transatlantic trade of enslaved Africans started in 1698. Bristol was involved because the trade was risky, but profitable and Bristol was in a good place to exploit it. Bristol had direct contact with the West Indies since at least the sixteenth century. Up to this point the slave trade had not been a major factor in either of these trading relationships.
Britain's Industrial Revolution began in 1770, largely because of important apparel developments like Richard Arkwright's Water Frame (patented in 1769) and James Hargreaves' Spinning Jenny patent (1770), which mechanized yarn production, moving work from homes to factories and igniting mass production. Iron innovations, improved roads (Turnpikes), and the growth of finance all contributed to Britain's rise to global industrial dominance between roughly 1760 and 1850.
My map will lead to destinations where human rights have been defined and advocated for, linking to some of the greatest works of British Literature writers who were passionate about seeing the rights of all humans be acknowledged by the state.
Photo Credits: By User:Lawei - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21605673
Photo Credits: By User:Lawei - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21605673
