HistoryExtra https://www.historyextra.com/topic/social-history Wed, 21 Oct 2026 14:12:36 GMT en hourly 1 America's anti-Chinese laws: a forgotten history https://www.historyextra.com/membership/americas-anti-chinese-laws-forgotten-history-podcast/ Wed, 21 Oct 2026 14:12:36 GMT https://www.historyextra.com/membership/americas-anti-chinese-laws-forgotten-history-podcast/ Historian Beth Lew-Williams explains her work uncovering legislation that contained and controlled the lives of Chinese people in the USA in the 19th century From the middle of the 19th century, Chinese people in the United States found themselves increasingly policed, as legislation was introduced that contained and controlled their economic and cultural lives.
Historian Beth Lew-Williams tells Elinor Evans about her work uncovering this wide-reaching set of laws for her book John Doe Chinaman, and reveals how Chinese people resisted and avoided discrimination.
Beth’s book is a finalist for the 2026 Cundill History Prize – you can find more details at cundillprize.com.
Find out more about the Chinese Exclusion Act.
]]> Death under the black mountain: surviving the 1966 Aberfan disaster https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/death-black-mountain-aberfan-disaster-welsh-history-who-blame-how-many-tragedy-survived/ Wed, 21 Oct 2026 13:00:27 GMT https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/death-black-mountain-aberfan-disaster-welsh-history-who-blame-how-many-tragedy-survived/ On 21 October 1966, a spoil tip collapsed onto the Welsh village of Aberfan, killing 116 children and 28 adults. To mark the 60th anniversary of the disaster, HistoryExtra revisits this article, first published in 2016, in which award-winning film-maker Steve Humphries shares recollections of that tragic day gathered from survivors, rescuers and bereaved parents. At about 9:15am on Friday 21 October 1966, spoil tip No 7 – one of seven slag heaps that loomed like a mountain range high above the south Wales village of Aberfan – started to move. Then, almost in the blink of an eye, the entire edifice was transformed into a 30-feet-high tsunami of sludge that slid downhill at over 80mph. Seconds later, a wave consisting of half a million tonnes of liquefied coal waste crashed into Aberfan. The wave swept across a canal and over an embankment before bearing down on the village primary school.
The children and staff of Pantglas Junior School were about to start their lessons on the last day before half-term. Suddenly they felt a deep shuddering and heard a deafening roar like a jet plane taking off close by. Before anyone had a chance to react, the walls and windows of four of the school’s seven classrooms were violently breached and the school was inundated almost instantly by a powerful surge of cloying black sludge – over 1.4 million cubic feet of liquefied slurry. By the time the slithering mass came to a halt a few seconds later, dozens of children and adults had been engulfed where they stood or sat.
Survivors’ voices
My new BBC Four documentary brings together freshly recorded memories of the disaster. One such account came from Jeff Edwards, who was eight years old at the time that he was trapped by the sludge. “I was gasping for breath because the air was getting less and less, but at least I had that pocket of air. The panic really set in when I thought: how was I going to get out?” For a few moments after the avalanche an eerie silence enveloped Aberfan as the villagers tried to take in the unimaginable horror of what had just happened. Then they rushed to the school and began frantically clawing at the rapidly re-solidifying slurry.
- Listen now | Steve Humphries reflects on the 1966 tragedy that enveloped a Welsh village
Miraculously, some children survived. Seven-year-old Karen Thomas and four other children in the school hall were saved by their brave dinner lady, Nansi Williams, who sacrificed her life by diving on top of them to shield them from the slurry. “We were shouting and trying to pull her hair to see if we could get a response from her, because she wasn’t saying anything to us,” Karen recalled. “We didn’t know what was happening. We couldn’t hear anything else. It was just our voices and screams we could hear.”
Ten-year-old Phil Thomas was buried as he walked across Moy Road outside the adjacent senior school, and briefly lost consciousness. “I woke, pitch black, buried, I couldn’t see a thing,” he said. “Then I started crying. I was shouting for my mum.”
Phil was still in grave danger: a torrent of water from fractured mains was spreading through the slurry. “He was trapped by his feet and we just couldn’t get him out,” recounted Len Haggett, one of the first firemen on the scene. “The water was rising and coming up to his head. We thought he might drown. There were about seven of us firemen there, and we gave this one final lift and we lifted this wall that had collapsed on him. We were elated that we’d saved his life but to this day I don’t know how we managed to lift that much weight.”
A grim reality
Back in the wrecked classrooms of the junior school, more firemen were inching their way through the mass of muck and rubble. Through a window they spotted a crop of blonde hair. It was Jeff Edwards, who later recalled that “I couldn’t move at all because my desk was against my stomach. On my left-hand side there was a girl’s head next to my face, and I couldn’t get away from the fact she had died. All I could see was a small aperture of light. And the next thing I remember is that the firemen smashed the window and they got in. They got down to my desk but they couldn’t shift it to get me out, so they got their hatchets out and actually broke up the desks. Then they carried me out to safety.”
From 11 o’clock in the morning the rescuers were confronted by a grim reality – that all of the children they were finding in the school were dead. Many were still sitting at their desks, entombed by the slurry. At this point the miners, some of them fathers of children at the school, effectively took over from the firemen. The lead was taken by the local coal board’s Mines Rescue Service, established to rescue miners trapped underground.
One of these rescuers was Roy Hamer, who quickly realised that the action had become a recovery rather than a rescue operation. His testimony is important – and comforting for bereaved parents and families – because it suggests that most of the children died instantly and did not suffer for long.
“I honestly believe that the slurry travelling at that rate… once it came into that school… just swept through it, and the damage was done very quickly. If you can understand the slurry was so small and fine that I think the children were more or less suffocated straight away rather than suffered agonies.”
With the lives of so many children at stake, the rescue and recovery operation quickly became worldwide news. Early in the day, hopes of finding many survivors were high. But the mood changed with each passing hour as more bodies were brought out. Parents waited in agony, among them Marilyn Brown, hoping that her 10-year-old daughter Janette would be found. “We were waiting, thinking: yes, we’re going to have news any minute now of the children, where they are. And we kept asking questions all the time.”
Marilyn remembers how her husband Bernard had been digging all morning, hoping to find their daughter. “He came over to one of the walls of the houses opposite, sitting on the wall, absolutely exhausted, and he said: ‘I don’t know what to do, Marilyn. I don’t know what to do.’ But eventually news came through that quite a few of the children had been buried. This time you didn’t want any more news, because you’re still thinking: yes she’ll be alright. She’ll be fine.”
How many died?
The dead were taken to a makeshift mortuary set up in Bethania Chapel, where many parents had to endure the ordeal of identifying the bodies of their children. Marilyn’s husband and father returned from the temporary mortuary to tell her their news.
“My father started to cry and I said: ‘Is she alright?’ And he said: ‘No. Janette has died.’ He said he had just identified her. I said: ‘I want to go. I want to go and see her.’ ‘No, no,’ he said, ‘you don’t go and see her, she’s fine.’ I said: ‘What does she look like?’ He said: ‘She’s got a tiny mark on her head and she’s sleeping,’ and that was that. Well, I just gave in to it then. My father, he was crying and I think it was because he was crying, I was crying as well. But it sort of comes over you then: yes, she’s gone.”
By the end of the day, 60 bodies had been recovered from the disaster area. The final death toll reached 144, of which 116 victims were children – nearly half of the school’s pupils.
Who was to blame?
Nine months later, a tribunal published its report on the disaster. It found that the National Coal Board (NCB) was completely to blame for the disaster, despite the fact that, while giving evidence to the tribunal, NCB chairman Lord Robens had claimed that the avalanche was caused by water from unknown springs underneath the tip. In fact, the springs had been known about for many years – they were even shown on the Ordnance Survey map of the area.
- Read more | History explorer: the conquest of Wales
Robens and the NCB also denied that the Aberfan tip complex had slid before, despite clear physical evidence, visible to the naked eye, of tip slides in 1944 and 1963. Donations from a public shocked at the tragedy and keen to help the bereaved families raised over £1.6m for the Aberfan Disaster Fund – at that time, the largest sum ever raised in Britain. But to add insult to injury, this was not given in full to the Aberfan community. Instead, £150,000 from the fund was allocated to clear the surrounding coal tips – an operation that was clearly the responsibility of the NCB.
Painful memories
Coming to terms with the loss of so many children has been very difficult for the people of Aberfan. Many still prefer not to talk about it, especially to outsiders. So it took many months for our film crew to win the trust of survivors, rescuers and bereaved families, and to persuade them to tell their stories on camera. In our film, some tell their stories for the first time.
Fireman Len Haggett, who helped rescue Phil Thomas, had never before spoken about the disaster; he had not even told his wife about anything that happened that day, for fear of upsetting her. Even after he received our letter calling for the memories of retired firemen involved in the Aberfan disaster, passed on by the Merthyr Fire Station, Len pondered for months whether to come forward and tell his story. He was from a generation who dealt with horror and tragedy by not talking about it.
Len had no idea of the identity of the boy whose life he helped save. It seems quite extraordinary today that they should have lived within a mile or so of each other and not known each other. Their moving reunion was captured on camera in a scene that, for me, is one of the most poignant in the film. Also present was Len’s fellow fireman Dave Thomas who assisted in Phil’s rescue.
They had a lot to catch up on – about each other’s lives, and what happened on that terrible day – but the most powerful moment came when a tearful Phil thanked the firemen for saving his life, saying: “Until this day and this meeting I never knew who dug me out.” Len replied: “We’re only sorry we couldn’t get more out.”
Among the most moving and emotional stories from the tragedy of Aberfan are those of the bereaved parents. They are also the most difficult to document and film. A number of the parents have died since the disaster; some are buried in the children’s cemetery on the hill, alongside the sons and daughters they lost in the disaster.
For understandable reasons, surviving mothers and fathers, now mostly in their seventies and eighties, still find it incredibly hard to talk about the day of the disaster. Marilyn Brown retains cherished memories of her daughter, Janette, who was 10 when she died. Marilyn keeps photographs of Janette around her home, and touches them as she passes.
“It gives me a sense of... she’s still with us, you know? That feeling of: yes – yes, I do remember you, and I will always remember you ... She would have been 61 now, and I think: what would she have been like now? What would she have done?”
Steve Humphries is an award-winning film-maker specialising in social history documentaries. He is the co-author with Sue Elliott and Bevan Jones of Surviving Aberfan: The People’s Story (Grosvenor House, 2016).
This article first appeared in the November 2016 issue of BBC History Magazine.
]]> An African king in the Roman empire https://www.historyextra.com/membership/an-african-king-in-roman-empire-podcast/ Tue, 20 Oct 2026 11:44:23 GMT https://www.historyextra.com/membership/an-african-king-in-roman-empire-podcast/ Andrew Kenrick unravels the amazing life of a young North African prince who went on to marry a daughter of Antony and Cleopatra, and rule an African kingdom He was barely a toddler when he was paraded as a captive in a Roman triumph in 46 BC, but young North African prince Juba went on to marry a daughter of Antony and Cleopatra, and rule an African kingdom. Andrew Kenrick, author of Rex Juba: 15 Glimpses of an African King, unravels his amazing life, in conversation with David Musgrove.
]]> Everyday life in a slave trading town https://www.historyextra.com/membership/everyday-life-in-a-slave-trading-town/ Mon, 19 Oct 2026 08:04:52 GMT https://www.historyextra.com/membership/everyday-life-in-a-slave-trading-town/ Toby Green talks about the arrest of Crispina Peres, a powerful slave trader in the west African port of Cacheu, that provides a remarkable window into everyday life in 17th-century west Africa In 1665 the Portuguese Inquisition arrested Crispina Peres, a powerful slave trader in the west African port of Cacheu. The records of her case provide a remarkable window into everyday life in 17th-century west Africa, and form the basis of Toby Green's latest book, The Heretic of Cacheu.
In this episode he is joined by Rob Attar to explore the story of Crispina and the lost world she inhabited.
]]> The country house at war https://www.historyextra.com/membership/the-country-house-at-war/ Wed, 14 Oct 2026 10:53:16 GMT https://www.historyextra.com/membership/the-country-house-at-war/ From the conscription of upper-class women to stories of great loss, Judith S Lewis charts the roles that country houses and their occupants really played in the WW2 war effort It might be assumed that the owners of Britain's country houses weren't hugely affected by the Second World War, and that they continued to live in luxury in their vast estates. However, as Judith S Lewis explains to Lauren Good, that wasn't the case. From the conscription of upper-class women to stories of great loss, she charts the roles that country houses and their occupants really played in the war effort.
]]> The stolen Native Americans who shaped US history https://www.historyextra.com/membership/the-stolen-native-americans-who-shaped-us-history/ Mon, 12 Oct 2026 15:42:05 GMT https://www.historyextra.com/membership/the-stolen-native-americans-who-shaped-us-history/ Historian Linford D Fisher discusses the enslavement of as many as 600,000 Native Americans between 1492 and 1880, and the impact that it had on tribal communities Between 1492 and 1880, as many as 600,000 Native Americans were enslaved in the area that would become the United States. That’s the figure estimated by historian Linford D Fisher in his book Stealing America: The Hidden Story of Indigenous Slavery in US History – one of the books shortlisted for the 2026 Cundill History Prize. In today’s episode, he speaks to Matt Elton about the extent of this slavery, the impact that it had on tribal communities, and its legacy today.
]]> Being disabled in the medieval era https://www.historyextra.com/membership/being-disabled-in-the-medieval-era-podcast/ Fri, 09 Oct 2026 09:14:05 GMT https://www.historyextra.com/membership/being-disabled-in-the-medieval-era-podcast/ Rae Gillibrand highlights how bodily difference was understood in this pre-modern era Prosthetic legs, wheelbarrow wheelchairs and guide… children? Those were just some of the assistive technologies and body augmentations available to our medieval and early modern ancestors.
In this episode, Rae Gillibrand highlights how bodily difference was understood in this pre-modern era, and explores the medical marketplace and community support that was available. Speaking to Emily Briffett, Rae reveals a world of ingenuity, adaptation and care.
Beyond the podcast
To find out more about Tudor attitudes to disability – and why they may have been more compassionate than you might think – don’t miss this HistoryExtra article written by Phillipa Vincent-Connolly
]]> I tried on THE dress from Pride and Prejudice. Here's how it felt https://www.historyextra.com/membership/i-tried-on-the-dress-from-pride-and-prejudice-video/ Fri, 09 Oct 2026 08:30:05 GMT https://www.historyextra.com/membership/i-tried-on-the-dress-from-pride-and-prejudice-video/ HistoryExtra's Lauren Good visits the costume house Cosprop in London, one of the world’s leading costumiers for the film, television and theatre industries, to try on some very special garments What's it like to wear some of the most iconic dresses from period drama?
HistoryExtra's Lauren Good visits the costume house Cosprop in London, one of the world’s leading costumiers for the film, television and theatre industries, to try on some very special garments.
Dressed by women's specialist costumier Clara Drumez, Lauren hears the techniques and tricks behind your favourite period drama costumes, and how they're used to bring Austen's work and Regency-era history to life on screen.
Cosprop is currently holding an exhibition, Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop, at Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh, where you can see for yourself the most iconic costumes they've created. It runs until 16 January 2027.
View Green Video on the source website]]> North Korea's religious dictators https://www.historyextra.com/membership/north-korea-religious-dictators-podcast/ Mon, 05 Oct 2026 16:09:20 GMT https://www.historyextra.com/membership/north-korea-religious-dictators-podcast/ Jonathan Cheng, Wall Street Journal correspondent, argues that the North Korean regime owes much to the enduring cult of personality around its founder, Kim Il-Sung More than three decades after the end of the Cold War and the fall of the USSR, the North Korean regime remains steadfastly in place, defiantly ploughing its own path some eight decades after its founding. What might explain this remarkable longevity?
In Jonathan Cheng’s new book, Korean Messiah, the Wall Street Journal correspondent argues that it owes much to the enduring cult of personality around its founder, Kim Il-Sung, who took inspiration from his own Christian roots to create a modern religion that endures to this day.
Jonathan’s book is a finalist for the 2026 Cundill History Prize, and in today’s episode he explores these ideas with Rob Attar.
]]> Inside Venice’s Jewish ghetto https://www.historyextra.com/membership/inside-venice-jewish-ghetto-podcast/ Fri, 02 Oct 2026 08:38:32 GMT https://www.historyextra.com/membership/inside-venice-jewish-ghetto-podcast/ Historian Alexander Lee explores why, in the early 16th century, Venice confined its Jewish population to a restricted quarter on an island in the city In the early 16th century, Venice confined its Jewish population to a restricted quarter on an island in the city. It was the first settlement to bear the name 'ghetto' – a word that would go on to shape the history of Jewish persecution and segregation.
Speaking to Emily Briffett, historian Alexander Lee explores why Venice created the ghetto, examining the uneasy tension between the city’s economic reliance on Jewish money-lenders and its deep suspicion of Jewish residents. He also reveals what life was like inside the ghetto, from its crowded buildings and religious institutions to its vibrant cultural life, intellectual debates and fragile relationship with the Venetian authorities.
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