Event Type: Branch

Takes Place: 12th November 2025

Time: 7pm

Venue: Via Zoom

Description: The publication of the 1921 Census presents historians of early Black British history with an exciting and valuable new source that provides essential insight into the growth and development of black communities in Britain before the Second World War. The census opens a unique window into the social and economic lives of Caribbean and West African seamen and their families in the interwar period. As global conflict came to an end, economic depression took hold in British shipping. The tramp trade in Cardiff, a vital source of maritime employment for black seamen in Britain, suffered particularly badly. As a result, Caribbean and West African seamen moved between ports in South Wales and those in other parts of Britain in search of work. Well-established networks of black seamen’s boarding houses connected these men to these other ports, such as Liverpool. These networks facilitated movement, access to local labour markets and even supported those men who found themselves unemployed. This talk will explore how information revealed in the 1921 Census provides fresh insight into black lives in interwar Britain and how it proves key to understanding the social and economic challenges faced by Caribbean and West African seamen both transient and those that had settled and made the metropole their home.

How to book: Zoom link via email

Price: Free

Email: Edbury@cardiff.ac.uk

Organiser: C

Lecturer: Dr Joseph Radciffe

Comments: This is the first of Cardiff HA`s 2025-26 season on "Globalising Welsh Studies". Joseph Radcliffe has recently completed his PhD at Birkbeck College, University of London. His research focuses primarily on the migration and settlement of black seamen fro

Region: Wales

Branch: Cardiff