Introduction
This resource contains a hyperlinked list of National Archives current resources for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic histories on The National Archives website. It includes education resources, exhibitions, research guides, blog posts and podcasts by staff and external writers and links to external websites.
The intention for this resource is to make it easier for teachers to find resources for teaching a diverse curriculum. We are committed to further improving our resources and continuing to increase the number or Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic histories told through our lessons and collections.
This document will be updated periodically to add new resources that have been made available through our website nationalarchives.gov.uk/education.
In light of the debates around the term ‘Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic,’ and the acronym ‘BAME,’ it might be important to note that it is used primarily for its practicality. Indeed, our records highlight the shifting nature of language as it applies to ‘race’ and racism over time, often inspired by social justice struggles. They provide a broader historical context for the emergence of such terms, and how through ongoing discussions, they are likely to change again in the future.
This finding aid contains many different types of resource available via The National Archives website. The following list shows what to expect from each category of resource.
Themed Collections
Small curated collections of digitised documents introduced by a specialist on the topic.
Lessons
Fully resourced lesson packs designed for use in a classroom either as a whole or to be adapted by teachers into their own lesson plans and teaching styles.
Videos
Our educational video series: ‘Spotlight On’, ‘Unboxing the Archive’, ‘History Hook’, and ‘Time Travel TV’.
Topic Websites
Websites and digital exhibitions dedicated to a topic or theme. Most of these are now archived; however, their content is still useful for study.
Online & Onsite Education Sessions
Free workshops run by the Education service for school aged students.
Go to Online & Onsite Education Sessions
Young People’s Projects
Resources created by young people during projects at The National Archives.
Outreach Resources
Resources from the Outreach team for underrepresented community groups.
Research Guides
Informative guides written by our collections experts offering advice on document series.
Blog Posts
Blogs written by staff members and researchers working with The National Archives.
Talks, Podcasts and Webinars
Records of events run at The National Archives by staff and guest speakers.
Go to Talks, Podcasts and Webinars
External Websites
Useful websites from other organisations and institutions.
Themed Collections
Capturing our Collections
This is a collection of student artworks creating in response to documents found in The National Archives inspired by the theme ‘Equity, Freedom, and Belonging’. Many of the entries are in response to documents related to histories around race and communities of colour, such as the Partition of British India and segregation in 1950s United States.
Civil Rights in America
This collection relates to protests, racial tension and the state and federal government response to calls for equal rights for Black Americans in the 1950s and 1960s.
These documents mainly record the reaction of British diplomats based in different parts of the United States to segregation and the response to it by civil rights leaders and ordinary Americans.
Commonwealth migration since 1945
This collection is about postwar migration from Commonwealth countries to Britain. They cover a wide range of topics including government policies and attitudes towards migration, the Empire Windrush and migration from the Caribbean, and housing and treatment of migrants after their arrival.
Home Front 1939-1945
This collection includes documents about the Empire Home Front and the contributions of the British Empire to the war effort.
Indian Independence
This document collection relates to India and the struggle for independence and the road to partition 1939-1947. It covers some of the key aspects of this period, for example, how the Second World War impacted on India’s relationship with Britain, the civil disobedience campaign as well as the differences between Indian politicians Jinnah and Gandhi. Other documents relate to British government policy on independence and various conferences held on the matter. Further documents explore the immediate impact of partition including its effect on the Sikh population.
Loyalty and dissent
This document collection explores the experiences of the Indian army fighting in the First World WAr. Students can explore many themes, for example loyalty, bravery, motivation, radicalism or sedition within the Indian army.
People – GCSE English Language
A selection of images to inspire creative writing including portraits of S J Celestine Edwards 1894, Wm Brand Esq 1892, and Ali Bin Hamoud Sultan of Zanzibar 1908.
Protest and Democracy (Part 2)
This collection contains documents relating to William Davidson in the Cato Street conspiracy.
Seafarers’ Stories
The purpose of this resource is to use the graphic novel ‘Seafarers’ Stories’ to explore the experiences of Panjabi, Mirpuri and Bengali seafarers in Britain in the early 20th century.
For a week in August 2021, a group of five young people connected online to take part in a project using archive documents to inspire a graphic novel. In creative workshops led by acclaimed illustrator, Serena Katt, the young people learned how to script and illustrate a graphic story about their interpretations of the seafarer’s lives.
Significant…
People
This collection contains documents relating to the Tudor trumpeter John Blanke, Sophia Duleep Singh, Walter Tull, Nelson Mandela, Noor Khan, and Baroness Floella Benjamin.
Places
This collection contains photographs of the Taj Mahal and the Pyramids and Sphinx in Egypt.
Events
This collection includes a telegram relating to the passengers of the Empire Windrush, their accommodation and employment.
Twenties Britain
This collection includes the deportation order of Sidney Bechet, a Jazz musician working in London.
Attlee’s Britain
This collection explores Britain between 1945-1951, including documents on immigration and the Empire Windrush.
Fifties Britain
This collection explores the political and social aspects of 1950s Britain including documents on Rachmanism, racial intolerance, employment, and ‘A West Indian in England’.
Sixties Britain
This collection explores the political and social aspects of 1960s Britain including documents on racial discrimination, an article on a survey on race and support for Enoch Powell.
Lessons
1919 race riots
The focus of this lesson concerns the riots that took place in Cardiff and Liverpool in 1919. The lesson is designed to support students following a thematic study on race and immigration and attitudes towards ethnic minorities from 1919 onwards.
African nurses
Use this lesson to find original documents which explore the role of African nurses in the health services of Britain.
This lesson has been developed in collaboration with the Young Historians Project and their project ‘A Hidden History: African women and the British health service’.
Bulaya Chanda
Bulaya Chanda was born in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) around 1895. Using the life of Bulaya, also known as Samson Jackson and Chief Luale, the purpose of this collection is to allow students and teachers to explore various themes around Empire between the First World War of 1914-1918 and the start of the Second World War (1939-1945).
Bussa’s Rebellion
This lesson looks at the story of the Bussa rebellion in Barbados on Sunday 14 April 1816, based on evidence relating to the reaction of the British authorities.
Caribbean History in photographs
This learning resource encourages the user to examine representations of race, culture and identity using The National Archives’ collection of photos, which spans 100 years of Caribbean history.
Produced by the New Art Exchange in Nottingham as part of the Caribbean through a Lens project.
The Empire Windrush
Caribbean migration
This lesson asks the question: why did people from the Caribbean travel to live and work in Britain?
Early Black Presence
This lesson is about early Black presence in Britain since the medieval period.
Life for Migrants in the 1940s and 50s
This lesson encourages pupils to explore original sources to find out how Caribbean migrants were treated after their arrival. Why was it difficult to find decent accommodation and jobs? How were they treated? What were race relations like in the cities in the 1950s?
The Notting Hill Carnival
What do the sources in this lesson reveal about the significance of the Notting Hill Carnival and why it began?
Hong Kong and the Opium Wars
Use this lesson to find out the causes behind the First Opium War and how Hong Kong became part of the British Empire. How important were economic factors in the growth of the British Empire? How can we explain the unique position of Hong Kong in the world today?
LGBTQ+ Rights in Britain
This lesson includes section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalised homosexuality in British colonies. It also includes a portrait of Patrick Nelson, a gay Jamaican man who first came to the UK in 1938. Finally, it includes a page from a 1989 newsletter from the Black Lesbian and Gay Centre.
Mangrove Nine protest
This lesson is intended to develop historical understanding of the history of racism and anti-racist activism in post-war Britain. Public encounters with the police shape experiences of government and attitudes towards the state and democracy more generally. Use this lesson to find out more about the history of Britain’s Black Power movement and the trial of the Mangrove Nine.
May Fourth Movement 1919
This lesson can be used to support the study of Mao’s China (1945-76) as well as the overall development of China in the 19th and 20th centuries. It can also support the study of international relations in the period after the First World War, especially the Paris Peace Conference and the Treaty of Versailles.
Native North Americans
This lesson uses documents that describe what happened between early English settlers and Native Americans in Virginia. Investigate how the English described this early contact. How did Native Americans react to the arrival of Europeans? Were relations friendly and, if so, how and why did they change over time?
Partition of British India
In this video, Iqbal Singh, Hannah Carter and Eleanor Newbigin introduce a document relating to the partition of British India. They explore what this document’s tone and content can tell us about British official’s attitudes to the violence that occurred after partition. Students also hear an oral testimony from Iqbal’s aunt whose family were displaced in 1946 due to growing tensions in British India. There is an accompanying resource pack you could use to explore this topic further.
Slavery
This lesson offers graphic evidence of the cruelty on which enslavement was based. The Court Records from Dominica reveal all kinds of details about the way enslaved African society worked. Most of all, however, it shows the punishments meted out to enslaved people, in all its brutality. It is an important piece of evidence of the reasons why the abolition campaign proceeded beyond 1807 to full abolition of the institution of enslavement in 1833.
Sugar
This lesson explores the time in history when sugar was beginning to become more easily available and affordable in England, due to the transatlantic slave trade, the growth of sugar plantations in the Americas, and the labour of enslaved peoples on these plantations.
The Boxers of Whitechapel
What can the stories of two West Indian boxers, the daughter of an Irish carpet maker and a child born in Whitechapel itself reveal about the challenges and benefits of living around Commercial Street in the Victorian era?
The Independence of Bangladesh in 1971
This lesson looks at how Bangladesh became an independent country after the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. This topic also sheds light on migration patterns into Britain and the large Bangladeshi community here.
The South African War
Use this lesson to find out how the British civil and military authorities carried out the South African war in 1899-1902 and how the public responded to the conflict.
Tobacco
Use the documents in this lesson to explore the early Stuart fascination with tobacco, focusing particularly on overseas trade networks and the activity of the Virginia Company, which helped popularise tobacco in England.
Walter Tull
This lesson has been created by year 5 pupils from Crane Park School Primary School, Feltham who spent time with The National Archives education web team as part of our ‘Kids in Museums’ day at The National Archives in November 2019. Pupils ‘became’ content developers tasked with creating their own online lesson on Walter Tull using an original photograph and document. All of the questions based on the sources provided in this lesson have been suggested by the pupils.
Wartime Propaganda
During the Second World War, Britain was keen to keep the support of the colonies in her Empire, including those in West Africa. Propaganda leaflets like the one in this lesson were sent to try and help win their support.
Who was Noor Khan?
Delve into some of the exciting files held at The National Archives, to find out all about the role of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the Second World War and the experience of one individual woman – Noor Inayat Khan. We’ve selected a range of documents to help your pupils learn more about the world of espionage in the 1940s, including photographs, reports and guidance for spies!
This lesson was developed for students with dyslexia.
Videos
Spotlight On
Spotlight On is a series of video guides, each based on an individual collection held at The National Archives.
In each video, a specialist presenter introduces one of our collections and highlights a document from it connected to the history curriculum for Key Stage 3/4/5.
Baptist War
Collections expert Daniel Gilfoyle looks at records related to the 1831-32 Baptist War slave rebellion in Jamaica from our Colonial Office collection.
Unboxing the Archive
Unboxing the Archive tells the stories of our collection through individual documents. Each episode features one of our record specialists exploring a key moment or figure from history and how they feature within our collection.
Chaucer’s London
Dr Euan Roger introduces E122/71/4 – a customs account from 1380-1381. Part of this account tells the story of a merchant referred to in the document as ‘African Peter’.
Spanish Louisiana
Ralph Thompson introduces PRO 30/55/19 De Galvez’s authorisation of Poucha Houmas (3 Oct 1779) and the Carleton Papers, documents related to Colonial America.
Walter Tull
Dr George Hay introduces WO 339/90293 – the Temporary Commission of Walter Tull as an officer in the British Army during the First World War.
History Hook
These short video tasks are accessible introductions to some of our online lesson resources.
History Hook: Bound for Britain
Join Ela as she introduces a document related to migration. This video forms a starter activity for our Bound for Britain lesson.
History Hook: Slavery
Join our Education Officer, Hannah, as she introduces a document related to the abolition of Slavery. This video forms a starter activity for our Slavery lesson.
Time Travel Club
The National Archives invite children and families across the country to join us in travelling through time! These short videos are aimed at younger children and families as part of our Time Travel Club.
A Significant Person
This episode will investigate an important person in British history, Sam King. He faced many challenges but overcame these to achieve great things.
Archaeology in the Archives
Today we are going digging but where are we traveling to? Come and see what documents we have related to a famous excavation that took place nearly 100 years ago. What was discovered what much older than that!
Living under Canvas
This is a special episode of Time Travel TV to mark Refugee Week. The episode shares the stories of child refugees who came to Britain, which have been recorded in documents we hold in our archive.
The Yellow Bicycle
Welcome to the Time Travel Club’s activities to mark an event which happened in 1972 in Uganda, Africa. The leader of Uganda, President Idi Amin, told all the Asian people living there that they had to leave their homes forever.
To help you find out more, we have created a special video called ‘The Yellow Bicycle’. In this video Chandrika Joshi will tell you a story about what it was like to live through this time.
Topic sites
Abolition of slavery
This resource portal provides information on the Slave Trade as well as links to other resources including lessons, research guides, and further reading.
Art of War
Second World War propaganda images focused on the theme of Allied Unity.
Black Presence
This online exhibition was created in partnership with the Black and Asian Studies Association. The site examines Black and Asian history in Britain 1500-1850 with case studies and further reading suggestions based on key events, people and themes. The site includes many useful documents with transcripts from a variety of archive series.
British Empire
Explore case studies of the rise and fall of the British Empire in India, Africa, Australia and North America.
Cabinet Papers
Explore the official papers of the British Cabinet from 1915 to the 1970s by theme including topics of Empire, Commonwealth and Decolonisation. Browse further digitised papers to the 1990s.
Caribbean Through a Lens
Links to some of the outcomes of the Caribbean Through a Lens community projects. These projects used images from the Ministry of Information (INF 10) and Foreign and Commonwealth Office (CO 1069) as inspiration for exhibitions, reminiscence sessions, workshops and poetry.
Citizenship
Discussions on citizenship including the 18th Century inquiry into the Slave Trade following Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man leading to the Slavery Abolition Act, the rise and fall of the British Empire and The British Nationality Act of 1981 which gave British citizenship to all Commonwealth subjects.
Focus on Film
Archive footage of the British Empire and Commonwealth in the 1900-1945 and Post-war to Present Day categories.
Great War
This section of the Great War website examines the allied nature of the British Army made up of divisions of Indians, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, West Africans and Canadians, as well as British troops. The sources in this case study will give you a sense of the range of different people the average British soldier might have met while serving in the Great War.
Home Front
Details on life in the Empire during the Second World War including attacks on British colonies, the industrial war effort and the impact of rationing, and evacuation from countries at risk to other colonies and dominions within the Empire.
Leaders & Controversies
A section of this site explores Martin Luther King and his role as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement.
The resource includes detailed source-based case studies on desegregation at Little Rock Central High School, the campaign in Birmingham Alabama, the march on Washington DC and views of Martin Luther King after his assassination in 1968.
Moving Here
Moving Here explores, records and illustrates why people came to England over the last 200 years and what their experiences were and continue to be.
The site is now archived following the end of the project, however the resources can be browsed and used to discover Caribbean, Irish, Jewish and South Asian histories.
Partition of the Panjab 1947
Videos recording the narratives of four Panjabi elders uprooted from their homeland during the Partition of British India in 1947. Images accompanying these stories include both archive documents and personal photographs from the families involved in the project.
Second World War
Information on events in World War Two away from the Western Front including the ‘Forgotten Army’ in Burma, the fall of Singapore, Pearl Harbour and Hiroshima.
Ugandan Asians
Six videos relating to an event in 2012, organised by The National Archives and The Exiles Project, marking 40 years since the expulsion of Asians from Uganda by Idi Amin. The videos include a talk on documents held at The National Archives and several personal accounts of the experiences of those forced to leave.
The Victorians
Using a map of The British Empire as a launching point, explore objects and images from a variety of British colonies during the Victorian era.
Onsite & online education sessions
Black Victorians
Available onsite & online
Key stages 2-3
In this workshop in your classroom students will use a range of different sources, including census records and photographs, to learn about the diverse lives of four Black individuals who lived in Britain in the Victorian era. Pupils investigate what documents can tell us about their lives, but also reflect on the questions they leave unanswered, and consider how these can act as a catalyst for further study.
Civil rights and racial segregation
Available onsite
Key stages 4-5
Exploring a range of Foreign Office files produced by the British Government during the presidencies of Eisenhower, JFK and Johnson, students will investigate the response of the ordinary Americans and the US government to segregation.
Choosing for the Archives (SEND)
Available onsite & online
Students with ASC, MLD, SLD and PMLD
In this interactive session, your students find out about different people’s stories from the archives. Using documents, images and sensory storytelling, they explore the lives of individuals such as Windrush passenger Sam King and Elizabeth I. Students then make decisions about what they feel is important to keep and choose objects to add to the archive box.
Migrants to Britain
Available onsite & online
Key stages 3-4
What can government documents reveal about the experience of Indian seafarers?
In this workshop, students will explore the lives of Indian seafarers, known as lascars, through investigating a variety of documents. They will gather evidence about themes such as migration, identity, challenges and agency.
Resistance and Rebellion in the Caribbean
Available onsite & online
Key stage 3
In the Caribbean, enslaved workers continually resisted their conditions. From day to day acts of resistance, such as killing livestock and pretending to be ill, to full-scale armed revolts, enslaved people confronted those that enslaved them in very different ways. In this session students will examine fascinating original documents to explore the different methods of resistance enslaved people used to resist slavery and why these were so important in their pursuit for freedom.
The Mangrove Nine
Available onsite & online
Key stages 3-4
How much can documents from The National Archives reveal about the Mangrove Nine?
In this workshop, students will investigate the ground-breaking case of the Mangrove Nine. This session explores themes of institutional racism, police discrimination and Black resistance.
Whitechapel
Available onsite & online
Key stages 3-4
Students will investigate this question, posed by Queen Victoria in November 1888, using a range of original documents. They will analyse original census records to draw out lines of enquiry about the area of Whitechapel in the 19th century. In addition students get to follow up on their enquiry by selecting a further useful document. These will include original press photographs of East London, plans for slum clearances and police reports on immigration.
Young people’s projects
Capturing our Collections
This is a collection of student artworks creating in response to documents found in The National Archives inspired by the theme ‘Equity, Freedom, and Belonging’. Many of the entries are in response to documents related to histories around race and communities of colour, such as the Partition of British India and segregation in 1950s United States.
Holding History
Working with professional filmmaker, Nigel Kellaway, our young people had the opportunity to explore original documents from our collection spanning key events and lesser-known personal stories from the past 1,000 years of history, considering questions such as: What is The National Archives? How has it changed and developed over the centuries? What are the challenges, threats and importance of an archive in today’s world?
The film includes the stories of William Cuffay, Noor Khan, the Maroons and the Empire Windrush.
Rebels in the records
‘Rebels in the records’ is a series of film combining puppetry, model-making and animation created by young people in July 2021. They explored people/groups who have stood up for what they believe in, campaigned for change or lived in a different way to their contemporary society.
One of the films tells the story of Samuel Sharpe, who was the leader of the 1831-32 Baptist War slave rebellion in Jamaica.
Seafarers’ Stories
Our graphic novel project ‘Seafarers’ Stories’ ran online from Monday 2nd – Friday 6th August with a group of five young people (age 16-19 years). Working with acclaimed illustrator Serena Katt the group learned how to create a graphic story.
The content of the graphic novel was based directly on archival documents which tell the story of seafarers from Mirpur, Bengal and the Panjab, who travelled to Britain working on merchant ships in the 1920s-30s. These seafarers faced major challenges on board ships, and were forced to prove their status as British after migration legislation passed in 1925.
Suffrage Tales
To mark the 100-year commemorations of the Representation of the People Act, the Education Service worked with professional film-maker, Nigel Kellaway, to engage young people (aged 16-19) with suffrage records held at The National Archives.
The film includes the story of Sophia Duleep Singh.
Uncovering LGBTQ+ lives in the archive
‘Uncovering LGBTQ+ lives in the archive’ is a series of films combining puppetry, model-making, and animation created by a group of eight young people in July 2022. The project allowed the group to explore moments of LGBTQ+ history from the collection. They then used their reflections to inspire the narrative and artwork for their films.
One of the films tells the story of the Shim Sham Club, a 1930s club that was heavily associated with African American culture.
Outreach resources
Colonial Seafarers: audio plays
Once British Always British is a collection of three 30-minute audio dramas that are the result of a collaboration between The National Archives and Tamasha Theatre Company and explore the migration of Yemeni, Indian and Caribbean sailors to British ports during the 1920s. Each story is inspired by material researched during a writing residency at The National Archives.
Five Photos online resource
Five Photos is an online resource designed to encourage people to engage creatively with our collections. It aims to provide a mindful, social or reminiscence-based activity for those shielding or in care home settings.
The five images you see here feature scenes from Britain, Africa and the Caribbean, taken between 1926 and 1965.
Indian Indenture: Creative Responses to the Archive
The Kuli Dhal Puri creative anthology is the culmination of our successful collaboration with BAATN that began in 2019. This wonderful collection of writings and images, which are deeply soulful, are the processing of emotional responses to archival materials relating to the history of Indian Indenture in our collection.
Loyalty and Dissent: Plays about South Asia and the First World War
As part of the First World War commemoration programme, this project worked with historians and playwrights to devise a series of short plays and accompanying education resources exploring the topic of South Asia and the First World War.
Research guides
American and West Indian colonies before 1782
Use this guide to find out about records of the British administration in colonial North America (present day United States) and the West Indies. The records can tell you about:
- The earliest English settlements (rather than settlers) in North America
- Native Americans
- Piracy
- The slave trade
- English conflicts with the Spanish and French
This is not a guide to records relating to colonial settlers.
Black British History on record
This portal resource is designed to support the discovery of documents relating to Black British history within The National Archives’ collections.
Due to the nature of our records, the term ‘Black British history’ in this context refers to records relating to British citizens of African and African-Caribbean descent.
Black British social and political history in the 20th Century
This guide will help you to find records relating to the experience and influence of black British people in the 20th century. It focuses on the records held here, at The National Archives, that relate to civil rights and race relations. It will also direct you to records held elsewhere.
British Transatlantic slavery
This research guide gives an overview of the major primary sources at The National Archives that relate to aspects of the slave trade, slavery and unfree labour in the British Caribbean and American colonies. It will help researchers to identify which areas of the collection will be of most use to them and suggest other sources and further reading that will help put these in their historical context.
It covers records created throughout the trade, from the 16th to the 19th centuries. This includes a wide range of documents from across The National Archives’ collection, illustrating the extent and impact of the trade at the time. The guide is by no means exhaustive, but aims to introduce and illustrate the diverse documents relating to the transatlantic slave trade held by The National Archives.
Colonies and dependencies from 1782
This guide shows you how to find records held at The National Archives relating to the British Empire from 1782 and outlines ways of researching a particular topic. From the 16th century onwards, the British government amassed a wealth of documentation on its empire. The collection is therefore an unrivalled resource on the history of the British Empire and its former colonies.
Empire and Commonwealth records held by other archives
This research guide is intended as an introduction to the key records relating to the history the British Empire and Commonwealth held at The National Archives and at other archives in the UK.
Enslaved people and slave owners
This guide will tell you how to find records of enslaved people and slave owners at The National Archives.
Your best chance of finding a record of an individual who was enslaved is to find them on a slave register. However, there are no registers of enslaved people before 1812. The best place to find information about an enslaved person before 1812 is in the private papers of the slave owner, or in records about the owner or his or her property. Papers might still be with the family or deposited in a local archive or library where the family lived or settled.
Immigration and immigrants
This guide provides advice on how to locate records of immigrants to England and Britain from the 13th century onwards. It also covers records which reflect government policy towards immigration over the last 800 years.
Indian Army personnel
This is a guide to finding records of the Indian Army during British rule. The vast majority of these records are currently held by the British Library.
Indian Indentured labourers
This guide will tell you how to find records of Indian indentured labourers at The National Archives.
The records at The National Archives are mainly concerned with how governments generally administered different indentured labour systems. They contain very little personal information about the labourers themselves.
Individuals from the Caribbean – an overview
This guide provides a brief overview of resources at The National Archives that can help you to trace individuals from the Caribbean. It is an introduction to the sorts of records we hold, with links to guides providing more detailed advice on how to find the records in our collection.
Slavery and the British transatlantic slave trade
Use this guide for an overview of records held at The National Archives that shed light on the slave trade, slavery and unfree labour in the British Caribbean and North American colonies. The guide is by no means exhaustive, but introduces and illustrates the diverse range of documents related to the transatlantic slave trade held here.
Soldiers in African forces under British control
This is a brief guide to help you research personnel in African armed forces. The records are comprehensive and varied, though sometimes complicated. When former British colonies gained independence from the United Kingdom, their governments assumed responsibility for all records relating to their armed forces, with a few exceptions. Most records are therefore held by the national archive of the country in question. This guide will help you find any information which exists.
Blog posts
20sPeople: ‘A Stranger in a Strange Place’
100 years ago: ‘Egypt is declared to be an independent sovereign State’
A face through time: Further opening up our prisoner of war records
A ‘new system of slavery’? The British West Indies and the origins of Indian indenture
A parting as of brothers: Bangladesh at 50
African Princess in Guy’s: The story of Princess Adenrele Ademola
An afternoon with the Mangrove Nine
An iconic and treasured record: The Empire Windrush passenger list
Before Notting Hill: Causeway Green and Britain’s anti-black hostel riots
Black boxers and the colour bar in 20th century Britain
Black History Month – the movement for black civil rights in Britain
‘Brown Babies’: The children born to black GI and white British women during the Second World War
Carnival: bringing a ‘little bit of heaven’ to Notting Hill
Depicting Japan in British propaganda of the Second World War
Digitising and conserving black cultural history
Empire Windrush passengers accommodated at the Clapham South deep shelter
Ena Clare Sullivan: A Jamaican nurse aboard the Empire Windrush
Examining the Foreign Office’s ‘Slave Trade Department’ records
Forgotten victims of war: Black merchant seamen interned in the Second World War
From Cardiff to the Caribbean: The 1919 Race Riots
From Yemen to Yorkshire: Using mixed methods to investigate migration
Garveyism: A letter from the black working class
Imagining Empire in the 1920s: Posters of the Empire Marketing Board
Improving the nation’s stock for ‘Great and Greater Britain’: Eugenics in the 1920s
Indian indenture: Creative responses to the archives
Insaaf: Exploring South Asian heritage through public information films
Jazz, the Charleston and moral panic: Music and dance in 1920s Britain
Journeying: Indian Indenture – working therapeutically to address archival silences
Legacies of Chinese indenture aboard the Empire Windrush in 1948
Let’s talk about the Mangrove Nine
Lieutenant Euan Lucie-Smith ‘reported missing’: A mother’s enquiry
Life and work in Jamaica in 1938: ‘Like seeds falling on a stony ground’
Once British Always British: Stories of Indian and Yemeni sailors in Britain in the 1920s
‘Racism Past and Present’: Mixing therapeutic practice with archival research
Raising awareness of the 1919 ‘Race Riots’ in Liverpool
Refugee Week 2020: ‘We were the lucky few’
Researching Africa at The National Archives
Researching Black history in the 1921 Census
Resist: Black Power in the courtroom
Teaching young people about the Partition of British India: 75th anniversary
‘The black man and his party’: William Cuffey, Chartist leader
The British POWs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1945
The Empire Windrush and the post-war ships that came before
The Free Thai Movement and the SOE
‘The Great Experiment’: Explaining the advent of indenture to the West Indies
The power of photography: Black History Month at Roehampton Library
The Shim Sham Club: ‘London’s miniature Harlem’
W E B Du Bois: Letter to London
Women on board the Empire Windrush
Young, British and black: opposing race discrimination
Talks, podcasts & webinars
On the Record
The National Archives presents On the Record, a podcast that unearths the real life stories found in our vast collections.
Join our experts and special guests as we dig deep into the people behind the paper and bring fascinating stories from more than 11 million records to life. Discover tales of forbidden love, spies, protest, and the everyday people of the past.
20th Century Migration: 1914 – A nation divided?
This first episode begins with the story of an English woman who loses her citizenship because of who she chooses to marry, and a British citizen arrested because of his country of birth. Then we uncover the lesser-told story of people leaving Britain for a better life.
20th Century Migration: 1948 – Citizenship and Empire
In this episode, we’re looking at two different migration experiences shaped by the British Nationality Act of 1948. For our first story, we explore the challenges faced by those arriving in Britain on board the Empire Windrush. We then follow the story of a young man who leaves Pakistan in search of adventure and opportunity.
20th Century Migration: 1962 – A Social Revolution?
In 1962, the Commonwealth Immigrants Act limited the freedom of movement for citizens born outside of the UK. In our final episode, we explore the rise of anti-immigrant movements during the 1960s. We then look at anti-racist activism and the formation of the Black Cultural Archives.
Colonial Office Records
The Colonial Office was the government department responsible for Britain’s colonies at various points throughout the 18th to 20th centuries. It issued instructions to colonial governors, authorised expenditures and determined the broad direction of policy for the Empire.
Refugee stories
Refugee Week (15-21 June) is an annual event that celebrates the contributions of refugees to Britain. Many refugee stories have found their way onto our repository shelves. In this special episode, we’re sharing just a few of them. We’re also going beyond the documents, as two of our records specialists interview their own parents about their refugee experiences and connect those stories to the documents we hold.
Resist: Black Power in the courtroom
In 1965, Britain passed the Race Relations Act, which made it illegal to refuse service on the basis of race. To some, it looked like progress, while some anti-racist activists were critical. In this episode, we’re going to examine two stories of black people in 1960s and 70s Britain using the legal system to fight racism and discrimination. Lorne Horsford used the protections of the Race Relations Act to make his case. The Mangrove Nine turned the courtroom into a platform for protesting the institutional racism that flourished outside the mandate of the Act.
Windrush at 75
Reporters, cameras, speeches, and even songs publicised the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush when it docked at Tilbury on June 22, 1948. The ship carried 1,027 people on board, including many passengers from the Caribbean, invited to help rebuild Britain after World War II.
In this episode, we’re marking the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush through the lens of several unique records held at The National Archives, including the official passenger list. Hosting this episode is Chloe Lee, a Migration and Citizenship Researcher, and she is joined by specialists Iqbal Singh, Lisa Berry-Waite and Vicky Iglikowski-Broad.
Talks and webinars
Black British politics and the Anti-Apartheid struggle
Black Poppies: Britain’s black community and the Great War
Colin Jackson: my journey into the past
Creating a legacy from your family history
For king and another country: Indian soldiers on the Western Front
Freedom fighters: sources for black loyalists at The National Archives
Fundamentals of researching your Caribbean ancestors
Hidden Women: uncovering the veil of silence during the partition of Punjab, India 1947
Introduction to immigration records
Making a mark: The early Black Press, 1817-1948
Sovereign, squire and rebel: Maharajah Duleep Singh and the heirs of a lost kingdom
The subversion of Cheddi Jagan: the Cold War in British Guiana, 1953-64
The three curses of Tutankhamun
The untold story of the RAF’s black Second World War fliers over Europe
Ugandan Asians in Britain: Journeys across three continents to find a home
Untold histories: black Britons during the period of the British slave trade, c1660-1807
West Africa and the First World War
What’s Online: Caribbean connections
External websites
Legacies of British slave ownership database from University College London
A searchable database of slave ownership, allowing the study of the legacy of slavery in commercial, cultural, historical, imperial, physical and political areas. The database also includes maps showing the estates of slave owners in Jamaica, Grenada and Barbados as well as their estates in Britain.
Our Migration Story
This website presents the untold stories of the generations of migrants who came to and shaped the British Isles.
Slave Voyages
This digital memorial raises questions about the largest slave trades in history and offers access to the documentation available to answer them.
Teaching British Histories of Race, Migration and Empire
A crowdsourced collection of resources for teachers, students and researchers exploring histories of race, migration and Empire.