Has history overlooked the enslaved who fought for freedom? | Sudhir Hazareesingh interview
The Politics Show
The New Statesman
4.2 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 20 September 2025
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The abolition of the slave trade and of slavery itself in the 19th Century is generally understood to have been instigated by European and American abolitionists.
However, has history overlooked how the enslaved themselves resisted their oppressors?
Author and politics tutor at Oxford University, Sudhir Hazareesingh, has explored these stories of resistance in his new book Daring to be Free.
Sudhir Hazareesingh discusses his findings with Tanjil Rashid.
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| 1:08.6 | The abolition of the slave trade and of slavery itself in the 19th century is generally understood to have been instigated by European and American abolitionists. |
| 1:22.6 | However, has history overlooked how the enslaved themselves resisted their oppressors? |
| 1:29.2 | I'm joined today by the distinguished author and historian Sudhir Hazari Singh, |
| 1:34.2 | a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, who has tried to recover those stories of resistance |
| 1:38.8 | in his new book Daring to be Free. |
| 1:41.5 | It chronicles the Odyssey of Ensl of enslaved peoples from the beginning of the |
| 1:45.6 | Atlantic slave trade in the 16th century to the abolition of slavery in the US in 1865, emphasizing |
| 1:52.2 | their desire for freedom. Why have we been so late to understand this? I'm Tangil Rashid, and this |
| 1:59.7 | is the New Statesman podcast. Hello, Sadiya. |
| 2:02.6 | Hello, Tangil. Thanks for having me. So, why don't we begin by discussing what today is the |
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