Andrew Williams

@anilliams.bsky.social

98 followers 380 following 17 posts

PhD History student at the University of the West Indies, Mona; researching early Kingston, Jamaica

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Political science 50%

History 34%

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Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Andrekos Varnava, Adrian Vickers , and 1 more Lesley A. Hall, Andrekos Varnava, Adrian Vickers, Andrew Williams

Evan @evansmithhist.bsky.social · 22d

In our recent volume, 'Forced Migration: Exiles and Refugees in the UK and the British Empire', @anilliams.bsky.social contributed a chapter on the forced deportation of Liverpool's Chinese seamen at the end of WWII.

@andrekosvarnava.bsky.social @yiannicart.bsky.social

brill.com/display/book...

chapter
7
Liverpool’s Chinese Community: the Second World
War, Exile, and Repatriation
Andrew Williams

The forced repatriation of Chinese seamen at the end of the Second World War
from Liverpool, in Northwest England, was the subject of a long- form journalistic
investigation in 2021, published in The Guardian newspaper.1 A few weeks
later, Liverpool Labour mp Kim Johnson raised it in Parliament. She called
on the Conservative government to launch an inquiry into the affair and to
acknowledge that in the case of these men, and the families they left behind,
‘justice delayed’ was ‘justice denied.’2 In response, the Home Office – the
department responsible for immigration – pledged to investigate the actions
of its antecedents in conspiring to repatriate hundreds of Chinese men after
Britain had defeated fascism in Europe and Asia.
Liverpool’s Chinese community has always been centred in its Chinatown,
which is claimed to be the oldest in Europe, although substantive historical
investigations into this community are few and far between. Perhaps the best
account has been written by Maria Lin Wong, whom in 1989 published a history
based primarily on oral testimony.3 Gregory B. Lee, a Chinese studies scholar,
has published other research, approaching the history of the community from
a postcolonial studies perspective.4 Even fewer publications directly address
the forced repatriation of Chinese seamen after the Second World War. Wong
made only brief mention of it based on what she was told and would have been
unable to explore it any further as the archival sources had not been released
to the public at the time. John Belchem, in his valuable history of race relations
in twentieth- century Liverpool, did provide an account of the repatriation, but..

Andrew Williams @anilliams.bsky.social · Sep 9

I would add that, as Jamaica's plantation economy grew in the 18th c, its reliance on indentured servants (the exported paupers) decreased. In general, in the West Indies indentured servants were more important in the 17th c, whereas the British workhouse system was an 18th c creation.

Andrew Williams @anilliams.bsky.social · Sep 9

I'm not very convinced that the phenomenon they attempt to describe deserves to be called a "nexus". Slave traders no doubt helped set up and run workhouses in their own towns but I imagine that came more from a paternalistic desire to improve their own vicinity than a great transatlantic scheme.

Andrew Williams @anilliams.bsky.social · Jul 27

Reported, hoping for a speedy resolution

Andrew Williams @anilliams.bsky.social · Jul 25

Possibly Transkribus?

Andrew Williams @anilliams.bsky.social · Jul 23

Yes, that is what I have done in the past

Andrew Williams @anilliams.bsky.social · Jul 10

Working on early 1700s Jamaica, what is the best and clearest phrase to use to succinctly refer to the 11-ish continental colonies of British America? Just "continental British America"? Any other ideas?

Andrew Williams @anilliams.bsky.social · Jul 9

Great article. Should help contextualise some things I talk about in my thesis, exploring enslaved doctors/healers in Kingston.

Andrew Williams @anilliams.bsky.social · Jun 30

Can't even write an email with that few citations!

Andrew Williams @anilliams.bsky.social · Jun 26

Have been having some problems with it since yesterday evening.

Andrew Williams @anilliams.bsky.social · Jun 22

Similar thing in my thesis with books titled "History of Jamaica", or words to that effect.

Andrew Williams @anilliams.bsky.social · May 22

Good news! There is already a book on Morice. Matthew David Mitchell, *The Prince of Slavers*. I have used it in my thesis research.

Andrew Williams @anilliams.bsky.social · May 16

Some excellent merchants' marks at the Library Company of Philadelphia

Andrew Williams @anilliams.bsky.social · May 6

Could always discuss archival silences, too

Reposted by Andrew Williams

Living With Water @livingwithwater.bsky.social · Apr 28

Hello new followers! (Except the bots, no hello for you.) Reminder that our Living With Water online event series (conference, festival, multiday extravaganza, call it what you will) starts next Thursday! Details here livingwithwater.hcommons.org

Living With Water: Agency, Materiality, Narratives – International online seminar series, May 2025

livingwithwater.hcommons.org

Andrew Williams @anilliams.bsky.social · Apr 15

Looks tantalising. I have always admired Open Book Publishers, but a more traditional UP would be Liverpool, who publish a lot of maritime history.

Reposted by Andrew Williams

Philippa Hellawell @pbhellawell.bsky.social · Feb 26

I'm very pleased to share news of a new project I am leading at The National Archives. PASSAGE combines archival research on the transatlantic trade of enslaved people with an international programme that centres the research of West African & Caribbean scholars.

Read more here: shorturl.at/XLyC8

Major grant to fund research into the history of transatlantic slavery - The National Archives

The National Archives has been awarded a £1 million grant by Lloyd’s Register Foundation for a new, collaborative research programme on the history of the transatlantic trade in enslaved people. PASSA...

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Andrew Williams @anilliams.bsky.social · Feb 22

The sad loss of Trevor Burnard, Karl Watson, Roy Augier, and Pedro Welch in the past few months has been a real blow to Caribbean history

Andrew Williams @anilliams.bsky.social · Jan 15

In Jamaican archives you get a whole range of microfilm readers, from the good to the bad to the ugly.

Reposted by Andrew Williams

Evan @evansmithhist.bsky.social · Jan 6

The new edited volume “Forced Migration: Exiles and Refugees in the UK and the British Empire, 1815–1949”, co-edited by @andrekosvarnava.bsky.social, @yiannicart.bsky.social and myself, is out in April and now has a website/cover. Pre-order available soon!

brill.com/display/titl...

Forced Migration: Exiles and Refugees in the UK and the British Empire, 1815–1949

"Forced Migration: Exiles and Refugees in the UK and the British Empire, 1815–1949" published on 24 Apr 2025 by Brill.

brill.com

Reposted by Andrew Williams

ISWE @ystadaucymru.bsky.social · Dec 19

Delighted that, together with Bangor University Archives, we’ve been awarded Welsh Government funding to digitise Jamaica papers within the Penrhyn estate archive:

www.bangor.ac.uk/iswe/news/ba...

Bangor University Archives awarded Welsh Government grant for Digitisation of Penrhyn Jamaica Papers | Bangor University

www.bangor.ac.uk

Andrew Williams @anilliams.bsky.social · Dec 8

Gravestone of Archibald Monteath, the author of one of the few surviving Caribbean slave testimonies. Carmel Moravian Church, Westmoreland, Jamaica.

Reposted by Andrew Williams

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · Nov 19

‘If the painting was nothing more than a realistic portrait of an 18th-century Black scholar in his study, that would be extraordinary enough. It’s the earliest such image in Western art, the first self-presentation of a Black person as an intellectual.’

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Fara Dabhoiwala · A Man of Parts and Learning: Francis Williams Gets His Due

The only certainty about the picture is that it shows Francis Williams. No one has ever been able to discover who...

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