Considers the second part of Eric Williams book Capitalism and Slavery, where he argues that "Britain's changing attitude to slavery and the slave trade was essentially a function of her changing economic situation and interest." Looks at the Williams' "interpretation of Pitt's conduct, of the abolition of the British slave trade in 1807, and of Palmerston and the suppression of the foreign slave trade."
"C.L..R. James' 1938 seminal text, The Black Jacobins, and Eric Williams' 1944 tour de force, Capitalism and Slavery, constitute much more than foundational works in West Indian nationalist historiography. Both authors, born in colonial Trinidad and writing Caribbean history within its Atlantic context, made significant contributions to development discourse within the traditions of Enlightenment Idealism. As critical realists they considered popular historiography indispensable to any attempt to root philosophical ideals within recognizable terms of everyday living. In The Black Jacobins, James documents the struggles of the enslaved peoples of St. Dominique, the mercantile showpiece of French colonial capitalism in the West Indies for freedom and social justice. In addition, he details the transformation of this successful anti-slavery rebellion into something much more elaborate in terms of Atlantic history--the creation of Haiti, the Caribbean's first nation-state. In Capitalism and Slavery, Williams expands and develops the paradigm of African labor enslavement and European capital liberation, first outlined by James in The Black Jacobins, that became the basis of the revolutionary reorganization of productivity for European economic development." (author)
The Caribbean branch of the Toronto-based Global Afrikan Congress (GAC) this week welcomed British Prime Minister Tony Blair's comments on the horrors of slavery, saying he has done much more for the cause than "our own" Black-led governments in the region on the issue. Maxie Fox, a spokesman for the GAC formed in Barbados in 2002, said the GAC and other Afro organizations have been trying for years to persuade regional governments to "have a discourse" on slavery, its effects on Blacks and even reparations, but only Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo, a Hindu, has seen it fit to acknowledge correspondence.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
197 p., Focusing on slave revolts that took place in Barbados in 1816, in Demerara in 1823, and in Jamaica in 1831--32, identifies four key aspects in British abolitionist propaganda regarding Caribbean slavery: the denial that antislavery activism prompted slave revolts, the attempt to understand and recount slave uprisings from the slaves' perspectives, the portrayal of slave rebels as victims of armed suppressors and as agents of the antislavery movement, and the presentation of revolts as a rationale against the continuance of slavery.
Passo Fundo, RS, Brasil: Universidade de Passo Fundo : UPF Editora
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
Originally presented as the author's thesis (master's)--Programa de Pós-Graduação em História da UPF, 2007., 413 p, Blacks were used in several activities of the mining universe, highlighting
work in the mines and planting gardens. With the mining crisis at the end of the 18th century there was an expansion to the interior of Mato Grosso province. Existence and use of captive labor seems to have persisted in the region until near the end the 19th century with the abolition of slavery.
