Part I. Extension: 1. A perennial institution; 2. Expanding slavery; 3. Extension and tension; 4. Border skirmishes; Part II. Crisis: 5. Age of American revolution 1770s–1820s; 6. Franco-American revolutions 1780s–1820s; 7. Latin American revolutions 1810s–1820s; 8. Abolitionism without revolution: Great Britain 1770s–1820s; Part III. Contraction: 9. British emancipation; 10. From colonial emancipation to global abolition; 11. The end of slavery: Anglo-America; 12. Abolishing New World slavery: Latin America; 13. Constructing Old World slavery: 1870s–1920s; Part IV. Reversion: 14. Inversion in Europe; 15. Afterword.
This book examines the impact of violence, economics, and civil society in the ebb and flow of slavery and antislavery during the last five centuries.
Seymour Drescher is University Professor of History and Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh. He has taught at Harvard University and was Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Dr Drescher has also been a Fulbright Scholar, an NEH Fellow, and a Guggenheim Fellow, and he was both a Fellow and the inaugural Secretary of the European Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Among his many works on slavery and abolition are Capitalism and Antislavery (1986); From Slavery to Freedom (1999); and The Mighty Experiment (2002), which was awarded the Frederick Douglass Book Prize by the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition in 2003. He has also co-edited a number of books, including A Historical Guide to World Slavery (1998) and Slavery (2001).
'Highly detailed on abolitionism as well as bondage, Abolition
conveys sober truths regarding the shocking realities and
potentialities of human nature, some frightening glimpses of even
worse scenarios that we avoided, and final appreciation of the
world's most important gains in human rights.' David Brion Davis,
author of Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New
World
'In the now vast literature on the rise and fall of slavery around
the globe there is nothing that comes close to this magisterial
comparative survey of abolition and abolitionism. Comprehensive in
coverage in both time and space, it ranges elegantly over difficult
issues and offers startling insights and asides on every page.'
David Eltis, Emory University
'In this superb work of historical scholarship, Seymour Drescher
has provided a highly detailed examination of the rise and fall of
slavery from about the fifteenth century to the middle of the
twentieth century … In examining the relationship of slavery and
abolition in a broad historical context, Drescher has made a major
contribution to the study of world history as well as to the study
of individual nations and groups.' Stanley L. Engerman, University
of Rochester
'Abolition … masterfully demonstrates the complexity and fragility
of the boundary between freedom and coercion since Columbus.' David
Richardson, Wilberforce Institute, University of Hull
'This is the work of a master craftsman at the height of his
powers. This book is no ordinary survey: it manages the rare feat
of having chronological and global reach, and yet says something
arresting at each point. Drescher combines an unusual mastery of
the expansive literature with an ability to weave a flowing and
persuasive narrative. From the world of classical antiquity to the
Russian Gulag, Drescher's analysis is readable, original and often
provocative: an important contribution which will allow readers to
take stock of the centrality - and the conundrums - of slavery in
its wider settings.' James Walvin, University of York
'I believe Abolition is the most comprehensive, detailed, and
integrated account of its subjects yet to appear, concentrating on
the Americas but including fascinating digressions and comparisons
that involve much of the rest of the world. The book is
encyclopedic but Drescher is superb at giving frequent overviews of
a big picture, charting the expansion and contraction of his
subjects over a period of twenty to fifty years. And there are
valuable insights, to say nothing of enlightening information, on
almost every page.' New York Review of Books
'Seymour Drescher has given us the most comprehensive account to
date of the rise and fall of modern slavery … The book is the fruit
of a lifetime's work by a scholar whose interests have ranged over
the entire field of slave studies. It is unlikely that we will see
another study of this scope and calibre for a long time.' The Times
Literary Supplement
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