Sir Isaac Newton’s links to colonialism and slavery may be highlighted to engineering students as part of a decolonisation drive at Sheffield University.
A draft plan at the engineering faculty states that certain scientists including the mathematician, physicist and astronomer “could be considered as benefiting from colonial-era activity.”
The reason for Newton’s inclusion is not stated but may relate to his investment in the South Sea Company. Like many contemporaries, Newton held stock in the company set up to supply slaves to Spanish America. He lost heavily when the South Sea Bubble burst in 1720 and the share price collapsed.
In 2018 a paper in Notes and Records, the Royal Society’s journal of the history of science, said that Newton not only tasted the
