Coal and Anti-Blackness in Thomas Hood's "The Demon-Ship"

Abstract: The long associations between coal and Blackness in British culture changed in the nineteenth century. No longer was coal merely fuel for the hearth fire or an ingredient in proto-industrial manufacturing; it powered engines in factories, steam ships, and trains. In conjunction with the regime of transatlantic slavery, Blackness and coal developed new associations in the British imaginary. These associations helped engender an anti-Black coal culture. This essay analyzes one of these associations—"dirtiness"—in Thomas Hood's comedic poem "The Demon-Ship" (1827). In the poem, the filth of coal turns a crew of collier sailors into enslaved Black people, which sets up the poem's punchline. Here the materiality of coal is used to extend and reinforce anti-Blackness. "The Demon-Ship," despite depicting fossil fuel infrastructure, makes multiple references to transatlantic slavery. These references and the overall usage of Blackness in the poem are nominally humorous. The poem's humour and its participation in anti-Black coal culture only serves to weaken transatlantic solidarity. Rather than seeing links between abolition and workers' rights, the poem gives a British audience a group to look down on. In this way, coal was an ingredient in the anti-Black climate of the nineteenth century. Recovering this relationship between fossil fuels and race is essential for understanding the Victorian period and the nature of energy transitions.