Ancient slavery and modern ideologies: Orlando Patterson and M. I. Finley among the dons

In 1978 and 1979, while a visiting fellow at Cambridge University, Orlando Patterson engaged in a number of conversations about slavery with Cambridge ancient historian M. I. Finley. Both men were at the time writing influential books on slavery that would mark important benchmarks in their careers and defined two approaches to the study of slavery, one fading in significance, the other introducing a comparative approach to the institution more focused on dynamics of power and social alienation. At the end of 1978, Finley delivered at the Collège de France four lectures that summarized his thinking on the topic over more than thirty years; two years later they appeared in print under the title Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology. In 1982 Patterson published Slavery and Social Death, a ground-breaking study that to this day remains unparalleled in its attempt to establish a globally valid definition of slavery applicable to some sixty-six slave-owning societies across three millennia. This article explores the intersection of these two works, the intellectual currents of the times in which they were produced, and the influence each exerted on the study of slavery in subsequent decades, as models and paradigms of two approaches to understanding the significance of the institution.

     

Jabotinsky and Ukrainian nationalism: A reinterpretation

Israel Kleiner, From Nationalism to Universalism: Vladimir Ze'ev Jabotinsky and the Ukrainian Question (Edmonton and Toronto: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, 2000). 199pp. Foreword by Wolf Moskovich. Bibliography. Index. ISBN 1–895571–33–2 (paper)     

How Cuba burned with the ghosts of British slavery: race,abolition and the Escalera

In the antebellum period, a system of slave trials operated in Virginia that was entirely at odds with the common law practices that governed the trial of most defendants, free and enslaved, throughout the southern states. This article examines the operation and implications of this system in Richmond, Virginia, between 1830 and 1861 and argues that the absence of due process protections for slaves enabled the legal system to better serve the interests of the slaveholding class than in common law jurisdictions. This was particularly significant in Richmond, as urban-industrial conditions made slaveholders extremely dependent on the law to combat slave crime. By the 1850s, however, the conflict between Virginia's slave trial system and Anglo-American common law culture, as well as between slaveholder and nonslaveholder interests, had resulted in adjustments to the system that signalled the start of its decline.     

Legacies of slavery for race,religion, and empire: S.J. Celestine Edwards and the Hard Truth (1894)

ABSTRACT

S.J. Celestine Edwards (1857?–1894), the son of liberated West Indian slaves, was the publisher of Lux (1892) and Fraternity (1893). Edwards, a lay preacher, had established a national reputation before becoming the first black editor in the United Kingdom. In July 1894, shortly before his death, a new book, Hard Truth, presented a dialogue between Christ and Lucifer on slavery, emancipation, and imperialism. This novella and his journalism emphasised the continuities from the slave past for what he termed ‘Anglo-Saxonism’. Edwards offered a sophisticated analysis of slavery and racism and of its legacy for abolitionist, humanitarian, and missionary engagements with the empire.     

Edmund Burke on slavery and the slave trade

This article reconstructs Edmund Burke’s thoughts on slavery from his Account of the European Settlements in America to his parliamentary speeches in the late 1700s. It seeks to demonstrate that Burke’s program for slave reform, Sketch of a Negro Code, was one of the earliest plans for gradual abolition and gradual manumission formulated in eighteenth-century England and, quite possibly, the first ever in modern British history whose scheme was detailed and comprehensive. This article further explains how the plan reflected both Burke’s antipathy to slavery and his unusually wide comprehension of the many obstacles to abolition. It concludes by stressing Burke’s belief that Africans were not condemned to servitude by their background.     

Marked by fire: brands,slavery, and identity

ABSTRACT

Perhaps one of the most visceral symbols used to represent the evils of the trans-Atlantic slave trade is the brand. The branding iron holds a profound semiotic weight due to its connotation with identity and how we collectively represent humans in opposition to animals. This article engages with the historical significance of the brand particularly in the context of slavery, tracing its influence through theories of identity as well as commodities, before exploring actual evidence of branding usage from the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Understanding not only the mechanisms which governed branding but its social significance is crucial as we work to better understand the experiences of those who suffered through this trade.     

Brazilian slavery: A survey from the cape of recent literature in English

This article surveys some of the rich historical writing on slavery in Brazil which has appeared in English over the past twenty years. This work has made important modifications to the notion that Brazilian slavery was part of a benign seigneurial society, markedly different from that of other New World colonies. By selecting five themes ‐ the transition from indigenous Indian to imported African slavery; slavery and rural production; slaves on the mines and in the towns; treatment of slaves; and the causes of emancipation ‐ the article draws attention to features of comparative interest to slavery elsewhere and particularly to that at the Cape.