Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: Today In History with The Retrospectors
Episode: Britain's First Black MPs
Description: John Stewart was elected MP for Lymington, Hampshire on 8th January, 1833.Â
On paper, he seemed a textbook member of Britainâs elite: wealthy, well-connected, educated in England, and a plantation owner.Â
But Stewartâs mother was an enslaved woman, making him considered by many to be Britainâs first Black MP.
Yet Stewart did not enter Parliament to challenge slavery or injustice. Rather, he was an unapologetic defender of the plantation system, opposed the abolition of slavery, fought taxes on sugar, and later resisted ending the exploitative âapprenticeshipâ system that replaced slavery after 1833.Â
In this...