Paper 21 reading list - Faculty of History

7 T H E S L A V E T R A D E : A F R I C A & T H E B R I T I S H C A R I B B E A N
a) Did Britain abolish the slave trade only because its contribution to the Atlantic economy had ceased to be
crucial?
b) Analyse the demographic, political and socio-economic consequences of the Atlantic slave trade for West African
societies.
Or: How far were Africans willing agents rather than helpless victims of the Atlantic trade?
Or: To what extent did African economic and political interests shape the Atlantic slave trade?
(7a)
The big picture
PK O’Brien ‘Metanarratives in Global Histories of Progress’, International History Review 23, 2 (2001),
345–67
AG Hopkins (ed) Globalization in World History (2002), chapter by Drayton
C Robinson ‘Capitalism, Slavery, and Bourgeois Historiography’, History Workshop Journal 23 (1987),
122–40
O Petré-Grenouilleau, Les Traites Negrières: Essai d’histoire globale (2004
The debate
E Williams Capitalism and Slavery (1944; reprint 1966)
SL Engerman & ED Genovese (eds) Race and Slavery in the Western Hemisphere (1975), chapter by Anstey
V Rubin & A Tuden (eds) Comparative Perspectives on Slavery (1977), chapters by Curtin, Anstey, & Drescher
S Drescher Econocide: British Slavery in the Era of Abolition (1977)
“ ‘Whose abolition? popular pressure and the ending of the British slave trade’, Past & Present
138 (1993), 136–66
“ ‘The long goodbye: Dutch capitalism & anti-slavery in comparative perspective’, American
Hist R 99 (1994), 44–69
D Eltis Economic Growth and the Ending of the Transatlantic Slave Trade (1987)
“ & J Walvin (eds) The Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade (1981), Introduction and Part 1
“ & LC Jennings ‘Trade between West Africa & the Atlantic world in the pre-colonial era’, American Hist
R 93 (1988), 936–59
PD Curtin The Rise and Fall of the Plantation Complex (1990)
M Craton, J Walvin, & D Wright (eds) Slavery, Abolition, & Emancipation, Parts 1, 2, 4, 5
L Colley Britons (1992), 350–60
BL Solow (ed.) Slavery and the Rise of the Atlantic System (1991), Introduction, chapters 5 and 8
“ & SL Engerman (eds) British Capitalism and Caribbean Slavery: the legacy of Eric Williams (1987)
RL Stein The French Slave Trade in the Eighteenth Century
Ian Bancom, Specters of the Atlantic: Finance Capital, Slavery, and the Philosophy of History
C. Brown, Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism
Recent summaries
N Canny OHBE, I (1998), chapter 10 by Beckles
PJ Marshall OHBE, II (1998), chapter 20 by Richardson
(7b)
W Rodney How Europe underdeveloped Africa (1972 & later edns), chapters 3–4 for an uncomplicated
view
J Iliffe Africans (1995), chapter 7, for a more complex one
AG Hopkins Economic History of West Africa (1973), chapter 3
P Manning Slavery and African Life (1990)
J Thornton Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World (1992)
N Canny (ed.) OHBE, I (1998), chapters 2 and 11
JE Inikori & SL Engerman (eds.) The Atlantic Slave Trade: Effects on Economics, Societies and People . . . (1992)
D Eltis & LC Jennings ‘Trade between west Africa & the Atlantic world in the pre-colonial era’, American Hist R 93
(1988), 936–59
P Lovejoy & D Richardson ‘British abolition and (West African) slave prices 1883–1850’, J EcHist 55 (1995)
R Law (ed.) From Slave Trade to ‘Legitimate’ Commerce (1995), Introduction, chapters 1–2, 4
JC Miller Way of Death: Merchant Capitalism & the Angolan Slave Trade (1988), Preface and chs 1–5,
11, 19
J Vansina Paths in the Rainforests (1990), chapter 7
JM Janzen ‘Ideologies and institutions in African therapeutic systems’, Social Science and Medicine 13B
(1979), 317–26
CC Robertson & MA Klein (eds) Women and Slavery in Africa (1983)