English novelist Jane Austen’s love for tea, clothing and other refinery had recently come under scrutiny for a possible link with slavery and colonial era exploitations. A museum in Chawton, United Kingdom which is dedicated to the famous late 18th century writer at her old home in the Hampshire village of had last month issued a statement that the museum will investigate the Austen family’s possible links to the practice of slavery during the ‘Regency era colonialism’. But the museum’s announcement was recently met with a lot of backlash from Austen fans and others who slammed the ‘woke culture’ and termed it madness. Newspapers including the Express UK also reported on the news with the headline ‘Woke madness’, Jane Austen faces ‘historical investigation’ over father’s slave trade link’, prompting the museum to issue a different statement.
“We would like to offer reassurance that we will not, and have never had any intention to, interrogate Jane Austen, her characters or her readers for drinking tea," the museum said.
The Telegraph had reported that the museum’s director said that Austen’s tea drinking habit which was a key social ceremony in her era and her novels links her to the exploitation by the British Empire around its colonies world-wide.
Lizzie Dunford, director of the museum, had earlier told The Telegraph, “The slave trade and the consequences of Regency-era Colonialism touched every family of means during the period. Jane Austen’s family were no exception. As purchasers of tea, sugar and cotton they were consumers of the products of the trade, and did also have closer links via family and friends. At Jane Austen’s House we are in the process of reviewing and updating all of our interpretation, including plans to explore the Empire and Regency Colonial context of both Austen’s family and her work.”
The report by The Telegraph had earlier mentioned that Austen had often mentioned taking sugar in her tea and wearing cotton that connects her to the products of empire and the slave trade, according to experts. This broader context will be highlighted at the museum. It said the authorities will be scrutinising Austen’s links to slavery through her father Rev George Austen, who was at one time the trustee of an Antigua sugar plantation.
However, after the backlash, the museum had hit back at the reports, saying that its plans have been ‘misrepresented’. It said they will so be highlighting Austen’s abolitionist views as hinted in her work, Mansfield Park and Emma. There were hints of anti-slavery ideology in her novel Emma, when one of the characters Jane Fairfax criticises the dehumanizing slave trade and governess trade.
“The aim of its changes is to bring Austen’s brilliance and the extraordinary flourishing of creativity she experienced at the House to the heart of every visit," the statement clarified.
It is also speculated that the title of her 1814 novel Mansfield Park was intentionally named after Lord Mansfield, the judge whose 1772 ruling said chattel slavery was not supported by the English common law.
The curators of the museum are planning a display dubbed as “Black Lives Matter to Jane Austen,” to highlight her subtle support for the abolitionist.
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