Interrogates the development of the world's first international courts of humanitarian justice and the subsequent "liberation" of nearly two hundred thousand Africans in the nineteenth century. In 1807, Britain and the United States passed legislation limiting and ultimately prohibiting the transoceanic slave trade. As world powers negotiated anti-slave-trade treaties thereafter, British, Portuguese, Spanish, Brazilian,French, and US authorities seized ships suspected of illegal slave trading, raided slave barracoons, and detained newly landed slaves. The judicial processes in a network of the world's first international courts of humanitarian justice not only resulted in the "liberation" of nearly two hundred thousand people but also generated an extensive archive of documents. Liberated Africans and the Abolition of the Slave Trade, 1807-1896 makes use of theserecords to illuminate the fates of former slaves, many of whom were released from bondage only to be conscripted into extended periods of indentured servitude. Essays in this collection explore a range of topics relatedto those often referred to as "Liberated Africans"-a designation that, the authors show, should be met with skepticism. Contributors share an emphasis on the human consequences for Africans of the abolitionist legislation. The collection is deeply comparative, looking at conditions in British colonies such as Sierra Leone, the Gambia, and the Cape Colony as well as slave-plantation economies such as Brazil, Cuba, and Mauritius. A groundbreaking intervention in the study of slavery, abolition, and emancipation, this volume will be welcomed by scholars, students, and all who care about the global legacy of slavery.
Reviews
Here is the slave trade, massively documented in some chapters, close and personal in others, varied lights shining on a dark chapter of human history. * ANGLICAN AND EPISCOPAL HISTORY *
Anderson and Lovejoy should be commended for putting together a collection of such impressively researched and well-argued essays. * Northern Mariner *
This collection will be useful for scholars of the African diaspora, abolitionism, and global history, and a number of the essays will be of keen interest to those studying British diplomatic engagement in Latin America. * Hispanic American Historical Review *
This work is extremely rich: in the course of nineteen chapters, the reader finds valuable perspectives on a wide range of subfields within history. [...] Given the wide range of topics, and the excellent scholarship, this is a volume that will make an important addition to many bookshelves. * Journal of British Studies *
Richard Anderson and Henry B. Lovejoy have drawn together a marvelous array of authors that includes many of the best now at work in this area. Liberated Africans will be of interest to Africanists the world over, as well as Caribbeanists, Latin Americanists, and scholars of Atlantic History and African American Studies. - -- Peter H. Wood, Duke University
I would strongly suggest this book not only to historians focusing on the African Atlantic and Diaspora studies but also to global labor history and dependency studies scholars. -- African Studies Quarterly



Book Information
ISBN 9781580469692
Author Richard Anderson
Format Hardback
Page Count 480
Imprint University of Rochester Press
Publisher Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Weight(grams) 1g