Stifled at birth: Private emigration from Bombay to British Guiana in the mid‐nineteenth century

The article commences with a general analysis of the labour problems confronting Guianese planters at emancipation and their efforts to tap the seemingly inexhaustible source in India. Its main thrust is to ascertain why, despite repeated clamour by the sugar planters for these invaluable labourers, Indian immigration was confined to the Bengal and Madras Presidencies. It concludes that the attempt to introduce labour from the Bombay Presidency by private enterprise failed not because of a clash of interests between Bombay mill‐owners and colonial planters but purely because the Bombay authorities deplored emigration overseas whatever the economic advantages.     

The image of the Warsaw Pogrom of 1881 in late nineteenth‐century Polish literature

This article interprets how the Christmas 1881 Warsaw Pogrom was depicted in Polish literature, using novels and short stories written soon after this incident as the source. It considers Eliza Orzeszkowa's “O ?ydach i kwestii ?ydowskiej,” written soon after the pogrom, in which she tried to analyse the reasons for what had happened in Warsaw. Other sources it examines are Konopnicka's short story “Mendel Gdański” and Boles?aw Prus's Lalka, which is often considered the best Polish novel of the nineteenth century. In analysing these sources, the article considers the varying responses to the pogrom, which was a kind of shock, since Polish liberals considered their part of the tsarist empire exempt from the anti‐Jewish excesses that had occurred in earlier months in southern Russia. However, the outbreak of violence in the Polish capital inevitably meant a closer re‐examination of the Polish context and its often complex Jewish–gentile relationship.     

Slave dealers,women, pregnancy,and abortion: The story of a circassian slave‐girl in mid‐nineteenth century Cairo

Revd Richard Price was one of the leading intellectual lights of Rational Dissent in late eighteenth-century Britain and was prominent in campaigns for religious and parliamentary reform. Hailed as an ‘Apostle of Liberty’ by the American and French Revolutionaries, Price was also an early subscriber to the Abolition Society in London. While prominent among British Enlightenment figures he had, however, a low profile as an abolitionist and is seldom mentioned in scholarship on abolition. This study discusses the nature of Price's antislavery and his relationship with Americans such as Thomas Jefferson. It sheds more light on the degree to which the emergence of abolitionism depended upon circumstances and how well it combined with other aims and priorities.     

Liberty,slavery, and the transformation of British identity in the eighteenth‐century West Indies

This article challenges the notion that black militias were of little consequence in the antebellum United States. The establishment, personnel and equipment of these militia units, and their importance for local black organization, has largely escaped scholarly attention. The significance of armed companies of young black men at a time when they were not officially sanctioned by federal and state authorities has also not been explored.

The article makes three arguments. First, there was a trajectory towards militarization from vigilance committees to independent companies to enrolment in union armies. Second, links between self-defence and rights of citizenship were already being struggled over at local and state levels before the more famous national expression in black union soldiers fighting for the union. Third, national narratives concerning the origins of the American civil war, African American slavery, and British Canadian history, obscure the multiple roles played by people of African descent during this period. It is only through transnational approaches towards fugitives, military formation and antislavery mobilization that we realise the role of blacks in challenging American slavery in the Atlantic world.

The organization of the article is as follows. It begins with fugitives and the organization of vigilance committees of self-defense in North America. It continues with states rights of self-defence, the exclusion of black men from these rights, and the resulting organization of independent companies. The public parade of these black militias on West India Day, the most important commemoration by Americans of African descent between the early 1830’s and 1860’s, is the next section. It concludes with the continental destruction of American slavery and its consequences for the post-emancipation era.

This article has several objectives. It examines important black institutions hitherto unexamined. It aims to broaden the conventional temporal and spatial dimensions of the civil war era. The third task is to reveal the limitations of nationalist narratives by seeking out connections among people of African descent as well as in the ways in which individuals and organizations provide alternative means for comparison. Finally, this article is part of a broader project examining political mobilization against slavery in the Atlantic world.     

Anti‐semitism and the Jewish community of Newcastle‐upon‐Tyne

After briefly outlining the historical development of the Jewish community in Newcastle‐upon‐Tyne, this article examines the extent to which anti‐Semitism was a major concern in the life of modern North‐East Jewry. The focus of this discussion is on the 1930s and 1940s, a period when anti‐Semitism assumed greater significance. What this artcle revals is that on Tyneside, even though the fear of anti‐Semitism gave rise to active responses from within the local Jewish community, anti‐Semitism remained small scale. The experience of Newcastle's Jewish community should caution us against overstating the prevalence of anti‐Semitism in British society.     

Lorist,reformist and romanticist: The nineteenth‐century response to Gypsy‐travellers

Gypsy‐travellers have always occupied an uncertain and contradictory position in sedentary‐based societies. Although performing significant economic and social functions this contribution was more usually overshadowed by the points at which they clashed with the structures and ideologies of the dominant and ‘host’ society. In the nineteenth century the Gypsy‐travellers were popularly presented in two distinct ways: as a Romany race and as degenerate itinerants. These varying perspectives originated from different sources and represented contrasting approaches to the Gypsy/nomadic ‘problem’. The validity, purpose and consequences of these apparently conflicting images form the subject of this article.     

The race for equality?: Slavery,freedom and the African‐American community from the colonial period to the present

William Cheek and Aimee Lee Cheek, John Mercer Längsten and the Fight for Black Freedom, 1829–65 (Urbana and Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1997). Pp 478. $21.95. ISBN 0 252 06591 3

Kimberly S. Hanger, Bounded Lives. Bounded Places: Free Black Society in Colonial New Orleans. 1769–1803 (Durham, NC and London: Duke University Press, 1997). Pp.xiii + 248. £47.50 (hardback); £15.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 8223 1906 3 and 1898 9

Darlene Clark Hine, Hine Sight: Black Women and the Re‐Construction of American History (1994; Reprint, Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 1997). Pp.xxxv + 290. £12.50. ISBN 0253 211247     

Slavery in eighteenth‐century Rhode Island: Evidence from the census of 1774

Slave Cultures and the Cultures of Slavery. Stephan Palmié (ed.). Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press. 1995. xlvii, 283pp. $35.00. ISBN 087049–903–3.

Carnival. Canboulay and Calypso Traditions in the Making. John Cowley. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1996. xv, 293pp. £35.00. ISBN 0–521–48138–4.

West Indies Accounts: Essays on the History of the British Caribbean and the Atlantic Economy in Honour of Richard Sheridan. Roderick a. McDonald (ed.). Kingston, Jamaica: The Press, University of the West Indies. 1996. xvi, 388pp. £14.00 (paperback). ISBN 976–640–022–9.

L'Engrenage de la Liberté: Caraïbes ‐ XIXe siècle, Nelly Schmidt. Aix‐en‐Provence: Publications de l'Université de Provence. 1995. 360pp. 250FF. ISBN 2–85399–359–0.

Slave Captain: The Career of James Irving in the Liverpool Slave Trade. Suzanne Schwarz (ed.). Wrexham: Bridge Books. 1995. 164pp. £8.95. ISBN 1–872424–42–2. The Slave Trade and the Economic Development of Eighteenth‐Century Lancaster. Melinda Elder. Halifax: Ryburn Publishing. 1992. 232pp. £25. ISBN 1–85331–030–1.

Them Dark Days: Slavery in the American Rice Swamps. William Dusinberre. New York: Oxford University Press. 1996. xiv, 556pp. £40.00.

The Kidnapped and the Ransomed: The narrative of Peter and Vina Still after forty years of slavery, Kate E.R. Pickard. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press. 1995. xv, 103, 409 pp. £14.00. ISBN 0–8032–9233–3.

The Abolitionist Sisterhood: Women's Political Culture in Antebellum America. Jean Fagan Yellin and John C. van Horne (eds.). Ithaca and London, Cornell University Press, in co‐operation with the Library Company of Philadelphia. 1994. xviii, 363pp.

’what nature suffers to groe’: Life, labor and landscape on the Georgia coast, 1680–1920. Mart A. Stewart. Athens &; London: University of Georgia Press, 1996. xix, 370pp. $45. ISBN 0–8203–1808–6.

Abolitionism in the United States and Brazil: A Comparative Perspective, Celia M. Azevedo. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.1995. xxvi, 200pp. ISBN 0–8153–2332–8.     

Requisite conditions for the formation and viability of a counter‐cultural community

Many scholars have noted that religion is essential for a counter‐culture or utopian community to survive. It has also frequently been maintained that any religion will do, that the content of the religion is inconsequential. This article focuses on the formation and viability of alternative societies and concludes that either harsh circumstances or a particular religious orientation is necessary. Three social conditions and four characteristics of the religious world‐view are specified as being necessary for the formation of an “intentional counter‐culture community.” Each of the predisposing structural factors and each of the characteristics of the world view must be present for the formation and viability of this type of alternative culture. In the “circumstantial counter‐culture community,” religion is much less important; oppressive conditions serve as a functional alternative to the specific religious outlook.     

Enhancing the entertainment experience of blind and low‐vision theatregoers through touch tours

In this paper we demonstrate how universal design theory and the research available on museum‐based touch tours can be used to develop a touch tour for blind and low‐vision theatregoers. We discuss these theoretical and practical approaches with reference to data collected and experience gained from the creation and execution of a touch tour for Hart House Theatre’s production of Hamlet at the University of Toronto. Finally, we offer up the possibility of using universal design theory to create a touch tour that would be attractive to all theatregoers.     

‘To return to the bosom of their fatherland’: Brazilian immigrants in nineteenth‐century Lagos

This article explores the southern prison system during the expansion of slavery in the nineteenth-century USA, to reveal struggles over landscape and geography. It suggests connections between diverse institutions such as plantation jails, county and city jails, workhouses, state penitentiaries and slave pens that have not been conceptualized as part of a carceral system supporting slavery. Slaveholders' various means of using these institutions are outlined as are their perceptions of these prisons. The article concludes by discussing the perspective of enslaved peoples, arguing that prisons were the site of considerable resistance as slave geographies were unable to be completely confined by the expanding carceral system.     

Conservation,community, and culture? New organizational challenges of community forest concessions in the Maya Biosphere Reserve of Guatemala

Community-based forestry has received much recent attention as an effort to protect threatened Southern forests by linking conservation with sustainable livelihoods. Many researchers have emphasized the importance of effective organization for successful community-based forestry. While significant attention has been paid to community-level organizational design for collective action, less attention has been given to the role secondary-level grassroots associations play in supporting forest governance. The case of the Association of Forest Communities of Petén (ACOFOP) in Guatemala's Maya Biosphere Reserve is discussed, using a framework drawn from research on multipurpose agrarian federations. As it confronts ongoing problems of representation, equity and legitimacy, ACOFOP now encourages associated community forest concessions to diversify beyond commercial timber into collectively organized non-timber forest activities. Diversification, however, brings new governance issues with new participants, objectives and organizational logics that challenge ACOFOP to change while maintaining characteristics that support successful advocacy of its members' interests. ACOFOP and its members actively experiment with several organizational alternatives, each with diverse implications for the balancing of political and economic roles. To better understand and support community forestry initiatives, their associations and similar agrarian organizations should be viewed in dynamic rather than static terms, and the central role local participants play in adapting their own organizations recognized.     

The ‘Dutch’ in Colchester: The economic influence of an immigrant community in the sixteenth and seventeeth centuries

In this paper the immigration of ‘Dutchmen’ into England is firstly placed within the context of immigration into this country in general, with particular reference to the movement of people in the sixteenth and seventeeth centuries. The growth of the community in Colchester is described briefly, as is the economy and standing of the town itself, with particular reference to the decline of its staple textile manufacture in the sixteenth century. The position of the Dutch in the town, and the transformation and revival of cloth production which resulted from their arrival, are examined, as are both popular and official attitudes towards them. Finally, an attempt is made to assess the extent of the Dutch contribution to the economic and social well‐being of the town by an examination of developments within the English textile industry in general in this period.     

The lived experiences of becoming a homeless person with addiction in Tehran: how they are withdrawn from the mainstream community?

Understanding the experiences of street addicted people can help clarify the process of engaging people with this social problem. This study aims to discover the challenges of drug-dependent street people by exploring their lived experiences. This study was conducted using content analysis of qualitative interviews with 22 street recruited from within compulsory drug treatment centers in Tehran. Participants were selected through purposive sampling and their experiences of homelessness and addiction were collected through a semi-structured interview. After analyzing the data, three categories and eight sub-categories were determined. The main categories included instability, social distrust, and economic vulnerability. Instability includes experiences such as rejection from their home, street attraction, and avoiding returning home. The social distrust theme consists of experiencing the stigma related to addiction and high-risk behaviors. The economic vulnerability encompasses gradual capital loss and weakening their work status in the context of a weak economic foundation. Dependent drug use added to those isolating experiences leads to weakened family ties, and social and economic interactions and finally results in being disconnected completely from the community mainstream.     

Is excessive gambling seen as a form of dependence? Evidence from the community and the clinic

Data from two studies are used to examine the proposition that excessive gambling, unlike excessive substance use, is not generally viewed as a form of dependence. In the first study, the attitudes of 100 members of the general population towards the causes of excess and towards appropriate treatments, indicated that excessive gambling was seen in more moral terms than were other addictive behaviours. In the second study, of 54 people receiving treatment for one of four forms of excessive behaviour, gamblers were just as likely to use terms such as addiction or compulsion to describe their behaviour but were also more likely than others to describe it in terms of moral weakness or vice. Concern is expressed at the way in which gambling may be marginalized as a form of dependence.We would like to acknowledge the help and support of the members of the clinical and general population samples who generously gave their time to take part in this research, and of those who kindly gave us permission to approach people in the clinical sample with whom they were in touch. We are grateful also to the Social Science Research Council (now the Economic and Social Research Council) who supported J.M. during the period of the research.