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This thesis is an exploration and analytical discussion of the socio-economic response of British society to the introduction of a revolutionary means of travel, made possible by the innovative technology of the passenger-carrying steamboat. In order to establish the technological and societal contexts, the study first sets out an abbreviated account of the technical history of steam navigation, and of the characteristics of the societies of England and Scotland. Presentation of the leading features of British society introduces one of the most significant questions raised throughout the study, which asks to what extent application of the new technology may have been associated with a social widening of opportunities to travel, in a society characterized by extremes of social differentiation. The historical account is set out so as to explain the beginning and consequential development of steam navigation in Scotland; the profitable exploitation of the technology in rapidly growing operations on the Thames; the uniquely British passion for the seaside holiday and the associated role of the steamboat; and finally the different characteristics of coastal operations. One of the most significant findings of the study, however, comes from examination of early steamer operations in the north Midlands. Contrary to accepted views of technology transfer, it has been found that, after initial applications in Scotland, the first users to put steamers into regular passenger service were not entrepreneurs in London, but businessmen at the inland port of Gainsborough. Investigation of operations there, and its significantly improved communication with Hull, has also opened up new and fruitful examination of the role of the steamboat on inland waterways linked with Northern industry, as well as new reasoning about the improvements in service and accommodation that accompanied the introduction of steam navigation.

My study concentrates upon the experiences of cotton workers in Bolton and Oldham during the 1930s and 1940s, using trade union and employers' association archives at Manchester's John Rylands University Library. I also investigate business records, official government papers, newspapers, oral accounts and pictorial evidence. My thesis is organised into five chapters: Labour Shortages and Domestic Recruitment; Labour Shortages and Overseas Recruitment; Working Conditions; Occupational Health; and Factory Discipline. Chapter One investigates the recruitment methods used to encourage men and women into cotton mills, as labour shortages escalated during the 1940s. I examine how gendered notions surrounding male and female employment influenced recruitment campaigns, and how the shortage of women for mill work after the Second World War meant that the government's policy towards female labour differed in Lancashire from the rest of Britain. With the infiltration of women into departments previously dominated by men, I explore the impact upon the gendered division of labour and the tactics employed by male operatives to retain men's status in the mill. The difficulty in attracting British operatives to a declining, yet essential, industry in terms of Britain's post-war economic recovery, led the government to embark upon a recruitment drive overseas. Chapter Two investigates the government's selection of immigrant labour based on stereotypes of suitable racial characteristics. I examine how the government's policy concerning foreign workers was determined by concerns over native workers' reactions to the scheme, and how British operatives' response to immigrants was influenced by the threat they posed to paid employment and to gender, class and national identities. One way of attracting labour was to improve working conditions. Chapter Three looks at changes to working practices and the mill environment, and how these impacted upon gender divisions at work. I examine the link between the provision of new factory facilities, and the reaffirmation of separate sexual identities for men and women working in mixed sex departments. Chapter Four investigates the occupational health aspects of cotton production. I explore the pride associated with the physical characteristics gained from mill work. I also study the impact that the gendered division of labour, and notions regarding the respectable appearance of men and women, had upon the types of illnesses from which they suffered and the treatment they sought. Chapter Five investigates factory discipline, linking skill and gender hierarchies with the ways in which men and women experienced and preformed discipline in the mill. I examine how ideas relating to the appropriate behaviour of men and women affected their reactions towards violence and sexual harassment at work. I also explore how the gendered division of labour determined the different types of discipline used, and the degree of supervision men and women received in the mill. In conclusion, I suggest that men and women's experiences in the cotton mills, and their relationship with colleagues, was not only linked to economic uncertainty, but was also closely connected to perceptions of class, gender and identity at work.

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This thesis analyses the ownership of the enslaved in the West Indies and Caribbean by British absentees on the eve of Emancipation, and explores the often contradictory representations of these metropolitan slave-owners in a society increasingly hostile to slavery, with particular focus on the compensation paid to slave-owners under the 1833 Abolition Act. It traces the debates about compensation in the context of both the conflict over slavery and the wider discussions of what constituted 'property'. Drawing on the records of the Slave Compensation Commission, and examining the largest 5000 awards claim-by-Claim, it seeks to provide a comprehensive analysis of who in Britain owned slaves and who, in addition to the owners themselves, benefited from the �£20 million compensation paid by the state, By analysing claims across Britain's West Indian and Caribbean colonies, the thesis highlights the role of modem capitalist investors, in addition to the traditional merchantconsignees for Jamaica who dominate much of the historiography. While confirming the important role of metropolitan merchants, it also identifies a distinctive rentier group of gentry slave-owners in Britain, who managed and transmitted 'slave-property' across genders and generations through the mechanisms traditionally utilised in the management of British landed property. These mercantile and rentier groups of large-scale slave-owners were disproportionately represented at both local and national level in political and social institutions, including Parliament where, the thesis argues, previous work has underestimated the number ofMPs linked to the slave economy, Finally, the thesis identifies numerous smaller-scale slave-owners in Britain (many of them women) and examines the language deployed and identities constructed by this group in pursuing their claims for slavecompensation, It concludes that slave-ownership was increasingly widespread but also increasingly 'thin' in Britain by the 1830s, and that many firms and families who received slave-compensation can still be found in Britain today.

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No description available.