Chocolate Islands. Cocoa, slavery and colonial Africa

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  • Name Social responsibility, social control & philanthropy

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Deals with Joseph Burtt's journey through Africa in the very early 20th century. He had been hired by William A Cadbury on behalf of Cadbury Brothers, to determine - in response to an emerging international controversy - if slave labour had been used in the production of cocoa purchased by the firm in the Portuguese West African colony of Sao Tome and Principe. His move from 'innocence and credulity to outrage and activism' and his prompting of Cadbury to seek new sources of supply and the implications for a libel action by the firm against the 'Evening Standard. Copies of Burtt's letters to Cadbury are in the Cadbury Collection, Birmingham University Library