Table of Contents

Introduction: The Anti-Slavery Project
PART I: THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND THE LEGAL ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
1. A Short History of British Anti-Slavery
2. British Anti-Slavery and European International Society
3. British Anti-Slavery and European Colonialism
PART II: LINKING THE HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY
4. The Limits of Legal Abolition
5. Defining Slavery in All Its Forms
PART III: CONTEMPORARY FORMS OF SLAVERY
6. "Classical" Slavery and Descent-Based Discrimination
7. Slaves to Debt
8. Trafficked into Slavery
Conclusion: Contemporary Slavery in the Shadow of History
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments

Promotional Information

Historian and human rights scholar Joel Quirk examines the evolution of political opposition to slavery from the mid-eighteenth century to the present day. He offers an original diagnosis of the underlying causes driving one of the most pressing human rights problems in the world today.

About the Author

Joel Quirk is Senior Lecturer of Political Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is author of Unfinished Business: A Comparative Survey of Historical and Contemporary Slavery, and co-editor of several volumes including International Orders in the Early Modern World: Before the Rise of the West.

Reviews

In this excellent exposé of the history of slavery from its legal abolition to contemporary manifestations, Professor Joel Quirk fills a serious gap in the study of this issue and lucidly addresses the inevitable trait-d'union existing between past and present in slavery studies.
*Leiden Journal of International Law*

Quirk has joined an increasing number of historians who should be applauded for devoting themselves to human rights, and he makes a valuable contribution by linking slavery to contemporary forms of exploitation.
*Human Rights Quarterly*

Quirk further develops an analytical thread that has woven throughout much of his scholarship: the problems attendant to the inherited definition and iconography of the transatlantic slave trade. . . . His work remains pivotal in the field.
*Human Rights Review*

The current anti-slavery movement labours under a delusion. The popular notion that some new and monstrous mutation burst upon the world at the end of the twentieth century serves no one well, least of all those in slavery. This original and insightful book helps us to see slavery clearly, both in the past and today. It is very difficult to solve a problem you do not understand, and more so if the problem is called by a different name every generation. The Anti-Slavery Project offers invaluable assistance to modern abolitionists and scholars along the lines of Einstein's dictum: 'Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.'
*Kevin Bales, President of Free the Slaves*

In this path-breaking book, Joel Quirk provides a compelling analysis of the relationship between the global history of slavery and abolition and contemporary forms of human bondage. By focusing upon the limitations-as well as strengths-of the historical abolition movement, The Anti-Slavery Project offers new insights into the enduring yet constantly evolving challenges that have faced slaves, former slaves and other vulnerable groups at many different times and places.
*Paul E. Lovejoy, York University*