Mimi Goodall

Research Topic

Sugar and the Country House

I research the history of sugar consumption in country houses in the UK and Early America over the course of the long-18th century. I argue that sugar, produced by enslaved people in the West Indies, was pervasive, not exceptional. It became something that was consumed by almost everyone and therefore almost every consumer became tied to slavery. 

My research is a product of our cultural moment. Cultural institutions must recognise their role in the history of empire and colonialism. By interrogating the ways in consumers in country houses were involved in the trade of slave-produced goods, I am adding another facet to the important work done linking slavery and the country house.

Supervisor: Professor Jane Humphries

Funding:  Arts & Humanities Research Council Doctoral Studentship / Queen Elizabeth Fellowship, Oxford University and University of Pennsylvania / St Peter's College Graduate Fund 

Academic Background:

BA English Language and Literature, Magdalen College Oxford (2014)

William Alexander Fleet Fellow, Princeton University (2015) 

MPhil Early Modern History, Emmanuel College Cambridge (2016) 

Queen Elizabeth Fellow, University of Pennsylvania (2019) 

Contact: miriam.goodall@spc.ox.ac.uk / @mimi_goodall