This lesson explores the worsening relations between Christians and Jews in the latter half of the thirteenth century. Use the sources to investigate the religious, economic, and social factors that led to the Jews being expelled from England in c. 1290. Could this extreme royal tactic have been avoided? Following almost two centuries of Christians and Jews living alongside each other, King Edward I expelled England’s entire Jewish population in the autumn of 1290. As the previous two lessons have shown, Jews had once been prominent in national finance and local trade at key regional centres like York, Lincoln and London, yet by the end of the thirteenth century, Jewish individuals were no longer able to reside ‘freely and honourably’ in England nor enjoy the same ‘liberties and customs’ as their predecessors. They were expelled from the realm as perfidious (faithless) men. The reign of King Edward I (1272-1307) witnessed a heightening of tensions between the Christian and Jewish populations in England. Before relations between the two faiths had been occasionally difficult, subject to prejudice around crusading propaganda and the varying levels of debt owed to Jewish moneylenders but horrific outbursts, such as the attack on York’s Jewish population in March 1190, were few and far between. Edward, however, placed new emphasis on the status of Jews in England. The Statute of Jewry c. 1275 outlined that Jews had to live in specific areas of the king’s towns; those aged over seven had to wear a badge that visually identified them as being Jewish; all aged over twelve years were to pay a tax of 3 pence each Easter; and Jews could only sell property or negotiate debts with the king’s permission. New rules paired with heavy taxation and growing suspicions surrounding the coin-clipping events in the late 1270s led to mounting pressure on Christian-Jewish relations. By the late 1280s, Edward could only secure parliament’s grant of further taxation to aid his war with France by making sacrifices. The expulsion of the Jews was the price he agreed to pay.

This resource contains a hyperlinked list of National Archives current resources for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic histories on The National Archives website. It includes education resources, exhibitions, research guides, blog posts and podcasts by staff and external writers and links to external websites. The intention for this resource is to make it easier for teachers to find resources for teaching a diverse curriculum. We are committed to further improving our resources and continuing to increase the number or Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic histories told through our lessons and collections. This document will be updated periodically to add new resources that have been made available through our website. It was last updated in September 2023. In light of the debates around the term ‘Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic,’ and the acronym ‘BAME,’ it might be important to note that it is used primarily for its practicality. Indeed, our records highlight the shifting nature of language as it applies to ‘race’ and racism over time, often inspired by social justice struggles. They provide a broader historical context for the emergence of such terms, and how through ongoing discussions, they are likely to change again in the future.

This session introduces pupils to the ‘archive keep-safe box’, as they discover the different documents and objects inside and what these reveal about a person from the past. Pupils will have the opportunity to re-create a Victorian photograph by trying on replica costume, as they find out more about the lives of rich and poor children at this time. We will take pictures of the pupils in their costume and insert their image into an original Victorian photograph. You can book this session by going to the National Archives Education website (linked to our shop).

This lesson encourages students to think about what life was like for a child being cared for by the Foundling Hospital, by looking at original sources held at The National Archives. The Hospital was founded during a time of great social and political change, during which it became desirable for the wealthy and influential to be seen as philanthropic.

On 9 August 1970, a group of Black Power activists led 150 people on a march against police harassment of the black community in Notting Hill, London. They called for the ‘end of the persecution of the Mangrove Restaurant’. Between January 1969 and July 1970, the police had raided the Mangrove Restaurant twelve times. No evidence of illegal activity was found during these raids. Local Police Constable Frank Pulley remained convinced that the restaurant was ‘a den of iniquity’ frequented by ‘pimps, prostitutes and criminals’.¹ At the 1970 march in defence of the Mangrove, violence broke out between the police and protestors. The following year nine men and women were put on trial at the Old Bailey for causing a riot at the march. Their names were Darcus Howe, Frank Crichlow, Rhodan Gordan, Althea Jones-Lacointe, Barbara Beese, Godfrey Miller, Rupert Glasgow Boyce, Anthony Carlisle Innis and Rothwell Kentish. These men and women became known nationally as the ‘Mangrove Nine.’ When all nine defendants were acquitted of the most serious charges after a long 55-day trial, it was widely recognised as a moment of victory for black protest. Use this lesson to find out more about the history of Britain’s Black Power movement and the trial of the Mangrove Nine. ¹ Constable Frank Pulley quoted in ‘A Den of Iniquity,’ Kensington Post, October 12, 1971, as cited in Rob Waters, Thinking Black: Britain, 1964-1985 (2019), p. 99

The 1919 race riots were the first time many people became aware of the presence of black and minority ethnic people living in Britain, including those who had lived and worked here for many years and served in the war. At the end of the First World War, the demobilisation of troops caused severe post-war competition for jobs. The perception that foreigners were ‘stealing’ jobs was one of the triggers for the rioting and attacks on black and minority ethnic communities in British port cities. Use this lesson to find out more about the 1919 race riots in Cardiff and Liverpool. How significant a factor was race in these riots?

This video from our ‘Spotlight On’ series features collections expert Will Butler looking at our War Office series. This video focuses on a manual from August 1918 about the role of tanks in warfare. It helps explore the impact of this technology during the First World War.

This video is part of our ‘Spotlight On’ series and features Contemporary Records Specialist Mark Dunton looking at twentieth century records from the Prime Minister’s Office relating to the start of the Suez Crisis in 1956.

This lesson shows us how we can use a range of historical sources from the early modern period to piece together the history of sugar, a foodstuff that is now a part of our daily life. It explores the time in history when sugar was beginning to become more easily available and affordable in England, due to the transatlantic slave trade, the growth of sugar plantations in the Americas, and the labour of enslaved peoples on these plantations. A large collection of documents that can tell us about the history of sugar can be found in a collection called HCA 30, a varied set of records from the High Court of Admiralty, which include piracy, prize-taking, colonialism, and overseas trade. Use this lesson to see what you can discover about the history of sugar from six different sources in collections at The National Archives.

In 1604, James I of England and James VI of Scotland published his ‘Counterblaste to Tobacco’. He condemned the use of tobacco on the grounds of its poisonous effects on the body. He wrote that smoking was a ‘custome lothesome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black and stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible stygian [very dark] smoke of the pit that is bottomless’. ‘Counterblaste’ also revealed James I’s concern about the potential disruptive effects of tobacco to English society. Writers of the period continuously linked the smoking of tobacco with immorality, disobedience, and even treason. As James I had only just ascended the English throne, it is unsurprising that he felt tobacco might encourage civil disorder and unrest. Tobacco had been present in England since at least the 1560s, when sailors returning from Atlantic voyages captained by the Merchant Adventurer Sir John Hawkins had brought it home. It was likely that they themselves picked up the habit from Spanish and Portuguese sailors. Despite James I’s protests, there was a tobacco boom in early Stuart England. Use the documents in this lesson to explore the early Stuart fascination with tobacco, focusing particularly on overseas trade networks and the activity of the Virginia Company, which helped popularise tobacco in England. Find out about the impact of early Stuart colonial ventures on individuals whose stories have often been left out of history.

Resistance to British rule in Ireland had existed for hundreds of years. Irish nationalists, the majority of them Catholic, resisted this rule in a number of peaceful or violent ways up until the start of the First World War. Irish nationalists wanted Ireland to be independent from British control. At the start of the twentieth century, Irish ‘Home Rule’, the name given to the process of transferring rule from British to Irish hands seemed likely and, as a result the Unionist minority, a largely Protestant population, loyal to Britain and British rule, began to more actively resist the idea. Eventually, Irish Home Rule was granted, but it excluded the six mainly Protestant counties of the province of Ulster (one of the four provinces of Ireland) in the north-east corner of the island. This established Northern Ireland in 1920, which continued to be part of the United Kingdom, while the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed in December 1921, established the Irish Free State as a Dominion of the British Empire. This meant that the Irish Free State was a self-governing nation of the Commonwealth of Nations,  which recognised the British monarch as head of state. Use the original sources in this lesson to find out how Ireland was partitioned.

This video from our ‘Spotlight On’ series features Records Specialist Dr Juliette Desplat looking at records from the Foreign Office. This video focuses on two documents relating to the British government’s reaction to the Russian Revolution.

This video from our ‘Spotlight On’ series features Records Specialist Mark Dunton looking at records from the Cabinet Office. This video focuses on one document relating to a cabinet meeting in 1981 during the premiership of Margaret Thatcher.

This video is part of our ‘Spotlight On’ series and features Modern Records Specialist Kevin Searle looking at records from the Home Office. This video focuses on some of the evidence and papers gathered to prepare the Scarman Report on causes of the Brixton uprisings. The title of the document is: ‘Inquiry into 1981 Brixton Disturbances (Scarman Inquiry): Evidence and Papers.’

This video from our ‘Spotlight On’ series features Records Specialist Daniel Gilfoyle looking at records from the Colonial Office. This video focuses on two documents relating to the Baptist War in 1831 led by Samuel Sharpe against slavery in Jamaica which shed light on resistance to slavery in the British Caribbean.

This video is part of our educational ‘Spotlight On’ series. This video features collections expert Sean Cunningham looking at records from our State Papers collection. He focuses on a ballad relating to the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536-7 from SP1, our series of State Papers relating to Henry VIII.

Magna Carta - an interactive learning resource from The National Archives and UK Parliament enable independent student-led enquiry useing an interactive platform and video characters to engage students with original thirteenth century documents to investigate why Magna Carta was issued and reissued at four points in time: 1215; 1225; 1265 and 1297. Guided by the famous monk chronicler, Matthew Paris, students travel around the country and through time to interview key characters and investigate original documents to decide for themselves why Magna Carta was, and remains, such an important document. You can find the interactive resource on our Education website (linked to our shop).

The purpose of this lesson is to explore sources which reveal something about the contemporary medical understanding of the disease, public attitudes and the role of the General Board of Health over a time frame of series of cholera epidemics in Victorian England. For some, the best advice against the disease was to improve ventilation, cleanliness and purge the body, keep it warm or change the diet. For others it required prayer and forgiveness from God. Again, it is interesting to consider why many of these ideas persisted after the breakthrough provided by Dr John Snow in 1854 that linked the presence of contaminated water to the spread of cholera at a time when the authorities and medical profession believed that the disease was spread by miasma, or bad air caused by pollution.

‘Uncovering LGBTQ+ lives in the archive’ is a series of films combining puppetry, model-making, and animation created by a group of eight young people in July 2022. The project allowed the group to explore moments of LGBTQ+ history from the collection, some more well-known than others, and to interpret the documents from a 21st century perspective. They then used their reflections to inspire the narrative and artwork for their films. This was the first young person’s project to be run onsite since 2019. The group worked with a filmmaking team led by Nigel Kellaway, as well as staff from the Education and Outreach department and record specialists. The young people explored stories relating to individuals and ‘spaces’ which allowed them to consider wider themes such as the use of language, criminalisation, and communication through the 18th to 20th centuries. Under the guidance of staff, the young people worked with original archive documents, in some cases seeing photographs of the people and places they were researching. The group demonstrated emotional intelligence and compassion for the people whose lives they have interpreted. The series of films can now be used by teachers and students as brief overviews or introductions to the themes explored within the films. The following questions can be asked of each film: What types of documents are shown in the films? What do the documents reveal about what life was like for LGBTQ+ people at the time? What themes can you identify within the films? How do we view these stories today, with a contemporary perspective? Can you find out how the laws affecting the lives of LGBTQ+ people have changed over time? Can you explain why? Why are these documents kept at The National Archives?

In 1832, Parliament passed a law that changed the British electoral system. It was known as the Great Reform Act, which basically gave the vote to middle class men, leaving working men disappointed. The Reform Act became law in response to years of criticism of the electoral system from those outside and inside Parliament. Elections in Britain were neither fair nor representative. In order to vote, a person had to own property or pay certain taxes to qualify, which excluded most working class people. There were also constituencies with several voters that elected two MPs to Parliament, such as Old Sarum in Salisbury. In these ‘rotten boroughs’, with few voters and no secret ballot, it was easy for those standing for election to buy votes. Industrial towns like Manchester or Birmingham, which had grown during the previous 80 years, had no Members of Parliament to represent them. In 1831, the House of Commons passed a Reform Bill, but the House of Lords, dominated by the Tory party, defeated it. This was followed by riots and serious disturbances in London, Birmingham, Derby, Nottingham, Leicester, Yeovil, Sherborne, Exeter and Bristol. In this lesson use original documents from 1830-31 to explore demands for change in the voting system.