Ryan Hanley is a British professor of history at the University of Exeter. He specialises in race and slavery in modern Britain, with a focus on the perspectives of people of African descent.

He is notable for being one of only two historians to have been awarded both the Alexander Prize and the Whitfield Book Prize from the Royal Historical Society. In 2023, Hanley was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize "for his work on Black British history, history and cultures of British anti-slavery, and class and ‘race’ in Britain."

Education and academic positions Hanley earned his doctorate in history from Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation at the University of Hull. After obtaining his degree, he worked at the University of Oxford, UCL, and the University of Bristol before taking up a full-time lecturing position at the University of Exeter. He has also had visiting fellowships at Queen Mary University, London and at the Huntington Library in California. He serves as a member of the executive committee for the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.

Professional career Hanley has published two books and more than twenty chapters and journal articles. His most notable work is that which focuses on the perspectives of those of African descent in Britain, for which he has been awarded both the Whitfield Book Prize and Alexander Prize from the Royal Historical Society. Alongside A. G. Rosser, he is one of only two historians to have received both awards.

He received the Alexander Prize in 2015 for his article Calvinism, Proslavery and James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw. In it, Hanley re-examines Gronniosaw's autobiography within the context of Calvinist and Dutch Reformed confessional networks to better understand how the text could advocate for slavery despite being written by a formerly enslaved author. It portrays Gronniosaw as a Black intellectual, and not simply as an ex-slave. The article was deemed significant enough to feature in the Economic History Review's List of publications on the economic and social history of Great Britain and Ireland published in 2016.

Hanley continued this approach by conducting the first full-length historical study of pre-abolition Black British writing in his 2019 Whitfield Prize-winning book Beyond Slavery and Abolition: Black British Writing, c. 1770–1830. In each of the eight chapters, Hanley provides a case study on a different Black British writer, and categorises them into three sections. Firstly, 'Black Celebrities', containing Ignatius Sancho, Olaudah Equiano/Gustavus Vassa, and Mary Prince. Next, the 'Black Evangelicals', Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, Boston King, and John Jea. Ending with the 'Black Radicals', Ottobah Cugoano and Robert Wedderburn. In his review of the work, Matthew Wyman-McCarthy emphasises the significance of Hanley's choice to frame Black British writers within their authorial 'networks'. He says the book makes strides for scholars who can now holistically approach these individuals as intellectuals, rather than simply abolitionists. He also says that the individual case studies conducted by Hanley deserve their place on undergraduate syllabi.

Publications

Books +YearTitlePublisherNotes2016Britain's History and Memory of Transatlantic SlaveryOxford University PressCo-authored with Jessica Moody and Katie Donington2018Beyond Slavery and Abolition Black British Writing, c. 1770–1830Cambridge University PressAwarded the Whitfield Book Prize2025Robert Wedderburn: British Insurrectionary, Jamaican AbolitionistYale University Press

Journal articles +YearTitleJournalNotes2014Calvinism, Proslavery and James Albert Ukawsaw GronniosawSlavery & AbolitionBiography and the Black AtlanticItinerario-International Journal on the History of European Expansion and Global InteractionAffect and Abolition in the Anglo-Atlantic, 1770–1830Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies2015The Royal Slave: Nobility, Diplomacy and the “African Prince” in Britain, 1748–1752Itinerario-International Journal on the History of European Expansion and Global InteractionInvoking Slavery in the Eighteenth-Century British ImaginationJournal for Eighteenth-Century StudiesInhuman Traffick: the International Struggle against the Transatlantic Slave TradeSocial History2016Slavery and the Birth of the Working-Class Racism in England, 1814–1833Transactions of the Royal Historical SocietyAwarded the Alexander PrizeA Radical Change of Heart: Robert Wedderburn's Last Word on SlaverySlavery & Abolition2017Slavery Hinterland: Transatlantic Slavery and Continental Europe, 1680–1850Social History2019Black Jokes, White Humour: Africans in English Caricature, 1769–1819English Historical Review2020Children Against Slavery: Juvenile Agency and the Sugar Boycotts in BritainTransactions of the Royal Historical SocietyCo-authored with Kathryn Gleadle2021The Shadow of Colonial Slavery at PeterlooCalibanTacky's Revolt: the Story of an Atlantic Slave War by Vincent Brown, and: Black Spartacus: the Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture by Sudhir HazareesinghJournal for Eighteenth-Century StudiesReview essayHenry Redhead Yorke, Colonial Radical: Politics and Identity in the Atlantic World, 1772–1813, by Amanda GoodrichEnglish Historical ReviewBritain’s Black Past, ed. Gretchen H. Gerzina2022Not Made by Slaves: Ethical Capitalism in the Age of AbolitionSlavery & Abolition

Chapters +YearTitleBookNotes2017IntroductionBritain's History and Memory of Transatlantic SlaveryCo-authored with Jessica Moody and Katie Donington‘There to sing the song of Moses’2018The Equiano EffectMigrant Britain2019Cato Street and the CaribbeanThe Cato Street Conspiracy2022Black Authors and British National Identity, 1763–1791African American Literature in Transition, 1750–1800

Prizes

+YearAwardInstitutionWork2015Alexander PrizeRoyal Historical SocietySlavery and the Birth of the Working-Class Racism in England, 1814–18332019Whitfield Book PrizeBeyond Slavery and Abolition Black British Writing, c. 1770–1830

References