The UWI Regional Headquarters, Jamaica, W.I. Friday, October 30, 2026—More than three decades after first arriving at New York University as a visiting scholar, Sir Hilary Beckles returned to the institution this month under markedly different circumstances: as its newly appointed Distinguished Scholar for 2026-2027 and as one of the world's leading voices on the history and legacies of slavery.
Hosted by NYU's Centre for the Study of Africa and the African Diaspora, Sir Hilary delivered a public lecture on October 13 titled The Economics of Wealth Creation: Why Enslaved Black Women Were the Financial Core of the Slavery Business Model, drawing scholars, students and members of the public into a compelling examination of one of the most overlooked dimensions of Atlantic slavery.
The lecture explored how enslaved African women stood at the centre of a system that generated extraordinary wealth throughout the Atlantic world. Moving beyond traditional narratives of plantation labour, Sir Hilary demonstrated how women's productive and reproductive capacities were deliberately woven into the economic architecture of slavery, making them indispensable to the accumulation of wealth that fuelled colonial expansion and economic development.
Drawing on decades of research, he reflected on the intellectual journey that led him to this area of scholarship. What began as an effort to better understand the experiences of enslaved women evolved into a body of work that uncovered extensive archival evidence documenting their labour, resilience and centrality to the slavery economy.
Throughout the presentation, Sir Hilary challenged audiences to reconsider longstanding assumptions about wealth creation in the modern world. His analysis revealed how systems of law, property ownership and commercial enterprise converged to commodify enslaved women in ways that made them uniquely valuable within the business model of slavery.
"For too long, the story of wealth creation in the Atlantic world has been told without fully acknowledging the central role of enslaved African women," said Sir Hilary Beckles. "My research has shown that they were not merely participants in the system of slavery but were positioned at the very core of its economic engine. To understand the making of the modern world, we must first understand their labour, their resilience and the immense value extracted from their lives."
The lecture formed part of Sir Hilary's tenure as NYU Distinguished Scholar, an appointment that recognises his outstanding contributions to historical scholarship and public intellectual leadership. The honour places him among a renowned community of global scholars whose work continues to shape contemporary understanding of history, society and culture.
Through Sir Hilary's scholarship, The University of the West Indies continues to shape global conversations on slavery, reparatory justice and Caribbean development, demonstrating the enduring relevance of Caribbean thought to some of the world's most pressing historical and social questions. The event marked not only a return to NYU for Sir Hilary, but also the affirmation of a career devoted to illuminating overlooked histories and enriching the global understanding of justice, identity and human progress.
Images and video courtesy the NYU Centre for the Study of Africa and the African Diaspora
Photo Captions
VC at NYU Photo 1: Professor Sir Hilary Beckles delivers his lecture, “The Economics of Wealth Creation: Why Enslaved Black Women Were the Financial Core of the Slavery Business Model,” at New York University on October 13, 2026.
