Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-2026
Disciplines
Arts and Humanities
Abstract
Legend has it that Jane Austen excluded the topic of slavery in toto from the text of Mansfield Park even though (or because) the family patriarch, Sir Thomas Bertram, spends the first half of the novel on his estate in Antigua. It is true that Sir Thomas is off-camera. However, in the family circle one evening shortly after his return from the West Indies, the reticent heroine, Fanny Price, attempts to open a discussion of the slave trade—without success. Mansfield Park does not impose silence on the question of the slave trade; rather, it depicts the imposition of silence on the question of the slave trade. If the novel is intended to exclude the slave question, then this episode does not belong in the text. But it is entirely consonant with the surrounding narrative, not least because everyone involved (including Sir Thomas) acts in character. Fanny’s attempt to open a discussion of the slave trade comes to nothing, not because the author vetoes it (for it that were the case, why did she allow Fanny to speak in the first place?) but because those present let it die.
Rights
© 2026 Stewart Justman
Recommended Citation
Justman, Stewart, "Why the “Dead Silence” About the Slave Trade in Mansfield Park?" (2026). Global Humanities and Religions Faculty Publications. 35.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/libstudies_pubs/35