The Making of New World Slavery From the Baroque to the Modern, 1492-1800

by Blackburn, Robin

• ISBN13: 9781844676316
• ISBN10: 1844676315
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-08-02
• Publisher: VERSO

Summary

The Making of New World Slavery argues that independent commerce, geared to burgeoning consumer markets, was the driving force behind the rise of plantation slavery. The baroque state sought'”successfully'”to feed upon this commerce and'”with markedly less success'”to regulate slavery and racial relations. To illustrate this thesis, Blackburn examines the deployment of slaves in the colonial possessions of the Portuguese, the Spanish, the Dutch, the English and the French. Plantation slavery is shown to have emerged from the impulses of civil society, not from the strategies of individual states. Robin Blackburn argues that the organization of slave plantations placed the West on a destructive path to modernity and that greatly preferable alternatives were both proposed and rejected. Finally, he shows that the surge of Atlantic trade, predicated on the murderous toil of the plantations, made a decisive contribution to both the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the West. The Verso World History Series : This series provides attractive new editions of classic works of history, making landmark texts available to a new generation of readers. Covering a timespan stretching from Ancient Greece and Rome to the twentieth century, and with a global geographical range, the series will also include thematic volumes providing insights into such topics as the spread of print cultures and the history of money.

Author Biography

Robin Blackburn teaches at the Graduate Faculty of the New School University, New York, and in the Sociology Department of the University of Essex. He is the author of, among other titles, The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, 1776-1848.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vi
Introduction: Slavery and Modernity	p. 1
Civil Slavery and the Colonial State	p. 5
Shifting Identity and Racial Slavery	p. 12
From the Baroque to the Creole	p. 20
The Selection of New World Slavery
The Old World Background to New World Slavery	p. 31
Rome and the Christian Embrace of Slavery	p. 34
Christian Resurgence and the Challenge of Islam	p. 42
Feudal Expansion and Ideologies of Persecution	p. 44
Slavery in Iberia's Christian Kingdoms	p. 49
Slavery and the Slavs	p. 54
The Eclipse of Serfdom and the Rise of Agrarian Capitalism	p. 56
The Bible, Slavery and the Nations of Man	p. 64
The Mediterranean, the Atlantic and Black Bondage	p. 76
Africans and the Islamic Slave Trade	p. 79
Conclusion	p. 83
The First Phase: Portugal and Africa	p. 95
Exploring the African Coast	p. 99
The Beginnings of a Slave Trade	p. 102
The Atlantic Islands	p. 108
African Slaves in the Peninsula	p. 112
Imperial Portugal, Africa, and Atlantic Civilization	p. 114
Slavery and Spanish America	p. 127
False Start in the Caribbean	p. 137
Silver and Revenue: Exploitation without Enslavement	p. 144
Slaveholding in a Baroque Empire	p. 147
Projects and Arguments	p. 150
The Rise of Brazilian Sugar	p. 161
La France Antarctique	p. 164
The Takeoff of the Sugar Economy	p. 166
The Transatlantic Slave Trade and Africa	p. 174
Arguments over Slavery	p. 177
Slavery and the Looming Battle for the Americas	p. 181
The Dutch War for Brazil and Africa	p. 185
The West India Company	p. 188
The Dutch in Brazil and Africa	p. 192
The Luso-Brazilian Recoil	p. 198
Sources of Dutch Weakness	p. 201
The New Role of the Dutch	p. 211
The Making of English Colonial Slavery	p. 217
The First Colonies	p. 223
Barbados and the Rise of Sugar	p. 229
The Role of Captains and New Merchants	p. 232
Tobacco and Sugar	p. 234
Plantation Labour, Slavery and Fear of Strange Women	p. 235
Civil War: Empire and Bondage	p. 243
The Restoration and the Codification of Colonial Slavery	p. 250
Bacon's Rebellion and Virginian Slavery	p. 256
The New Slavery and the Caribbean Plantation	p. 258
The Glorious Revolution and the Colonies	p. 261
The Construction of the French Colonial System	p. 277
An Experiment in Mercantilism	p. 281
The Testimony of Du Tertre	p. 287
The Code Noir	p. 290
Royal Ambitions and the Spirit of Colonial Autonomy	p. 292
Dynastic Calculation, Baroque Spectacle and Colonial Development	p. 298
Racial Slavery and the Rise of the Plantation	p. 307
Planters, Merchants, Captains	p. 312
Plantation Labour: From Indenture to Slavery	p. 315
The Supply of Slaves and the Turn to Slavery	p. 326
The New Plantation	p. 332
The Plantation Regime and the Question of Security	p. 344
Alternatives to Slavery?	p. 350
Slavery and Accumulation
Colonial Slavery and the Eighteenth-Century Boom	p. 371
Europe and the Atlantic	p. 377
The Slave Trade in the Eighteenth Century	p. 383
The Pattern of Trade and Shipping	p. 395
The Sugar Islands	p. 401
Economics and Demography in the British Caribbean	p. 404
The French West Indies	p. 431
Anglo-French Patterns of Colonial Trade	p. 444
The Brilliance of French Creole Society	p. 449
Slavery on the Mainland	p. 457
North America and the Reproduction of Slavery	p. 459
Slavery in Brazil's Golden Age	p. 483
Slavery in Spanish America	p. 494
The Lesser Producers and the Logic of the Plantation Trade	p. 500
New World Slavery, Primitive Accumulation and British Industrialization	p. 509
Markets in Africa and the New World	p. 518
Profits and Investment	p. 527
Sectors of Investment and New Financial Instruments	p. 545
Raw Materials	p. 554
Plantation Products and the New World of Consumption	p. 558
War, Colonies and Industrialization	p. 562
The Anglo-French Wars of 1793-1815: A Test	p. 568
Epilogue	p. 581
Index	p. 594
List of Maps and Illustrations
The Atlantic in the early colonial period	p. 2
Jacob Jordaens, Moses and Zipporah	p. 32
Albert Eckourt, The Kongolese Envoy to Recife	p. 186
Richard Ligon, A Map of Barbados, 1657	p. 218
The Coffee-Man	p. 278
Jamaican music, from Hans Sloane, Voyage to the Islands	p. 348
Scold's bridle and iron mask	p. 325
Map of the Caribbean, c. 1770	p. 372
Dam in Saint Domingue	p. 402
Map of the Americas, c. 1770	p. 458
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