Leighton Buzzard author wins £50,000 Wolfson History Prize for book on Atlantic slave trade
Leighton Buzzard-based historian Dr Hannah Durkin is celebrating after being named winner of the Wolfson History Prize 2025.
Hannah was awarded £50k in recognition of her book, Survivors: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the Atlantic Slave Trade earning the UK’s most prestigious history writing prize.
Published by William Collins, the book tells stories of the survivors of the Clotilda, the last ship of the Atlantic slave trade.
It follows the lives of Clotilda’s 110 captives, from their kidnappings in what is now Nigeria, through a 45-day journey across the Middle Passage, and to the subsequent sale of the ship’s 103 surviving children and young people into slavery across Alabama.
Some of the survivors lived well into the 20th century, making them the last witnesses to the final act of a terrible and significant period in world history.
The Wolfson History Prize judges said: “A superb reconstruction of the lives of the survivors of the slave ship, Clotilda. This searing book conveys the survivors’ sufferings and remarkable resilience, bringing to life their personal stories in a compelling way.”
David Cannadine, chair of the Wolfson History Prize judges added: “Survivors is a powerful, moving and revelatory account of the African captives taken aboard the Clotilda, the last ship of the Atlantic slave trade. Durkin draws on meticulous research to shed light on the survivors’ personal stories, demonstrating how they faced loss and adversity with strength and resilience, and calling our attention to their legacy. We wish to express our warmest congratulations to Hannah Durkin on winning this year’s Wolfson History Prize.”
Hannah is a historian specialising in transatlantic slavery and African diasporic art and culture. She holds a PhD in American Studies from the University of Nottingham and a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism from Leeds Trinity University. She is a former Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow and has taught at Nottingham and Newcastle universities.
Her work has been shortlisted for a Historical Writers’ Association Non-Fiction Crown Award, and she is an advisor to the History Museum of Mobile (Alabama), which is working to memorialise the Clotilda survivors, and the Clotilda Descendants Association, which traces survivors’ descendants.