Exploring the Past/Historical Association free lecture, 12 Nov 2025, 7pm

Our next Exploring the Past / Historical Association online free lecture takes place on Wednesday 12 November 2025. Please sign up to book a place, and we will send an MS Teams link a few days before the talk.

For November's talk, we’re excited to welcome Dr Joseph Radcliffe to speak on the theme: Caribbean and West African lives in British ports: The 1921 census, black communities and economic migration in interwar Britain

The publication of the 1921 Census presents historians of early Black British history with an exciting and valuable new source that provides essential insight into the growth and development of black communities in Britain before the Second World War. The census opens a unique window into the social and economic lives of Caribbean and West African seamen and their families in the interwar period. As global conflict came to an end, economic depression took hold in British shipping. The tramp trade in Cardiff, a vital source of maritime employment for black seamen in Britain, suffered particularly badly. As a result, Caribbean and West African seamen moved between ports in South Wales and those in other parts of Britain in search of work. Well-established networks of black seamen’s boarding houses connected these men to these other ports, such as Liverpool. These networks facilitated movement, access to local labour markets and even supported those men who found themselves unemployed. This talk will explore how information revealed in the 1921 Census provides fresh insight into black lives in interwar Britain and how it proves key to understanding the social and economic challenges faced by Caribbean and West African seamen both transient and those that had settled and made the metropole their home.

When: Wednesday 12 November 2025, 19:00

Where: Online (Microsoft Teams)

To book your place, visit:

In the week of the talk, a link will arrive via email from Dr Paul Webster. If you have not received a link by midday on Wednesday 12 November, email Paul [websterp@cardiff.ac.uk ] and he will send it on.