Slavery, seemingly an inevitable consequence of empire, has existed as an economic institution since the earliest times of human history and, in particular, has formed a major part of European imperial history over the past 400 years. It has left an impact on the modern society of the European, African and American continents and has produced a richer and more multi‐faceted condition of relations between people of different races, colours and religious backgrounds. One of the massive transformations that took place in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was the movement of millions of people from the status of slaves to that of legally free men, women, and children. This bibliography covers the impact of these changes on the countries listed in this work’s sub‐title.
The broadly inclusive coverage of both primary and secondary sources dealing with slave owners and non‐owners, slaves and free persons of colour, including immigrant labour, plus the long time frame, the descriptive annotations, and the brief insightful introductory essays, inevitably make the bibliography invaluable for researchers. Societies After Slavery provides thousands of entries and rich scholarly annotations, which will make it an important resource for scholars and students engaged in research on post‐emancipation societies in the Americas and Africa. However, there are significant drawbacks to using this book. There is no overview, such that works on slavery of a more general nature find no place. More importantly, this book has no index, a major problem for the student seeking to ascertain which books are and are not listed within.
The compilers are Mid‐Western US academics. Rebecca J. Scott is Professor of History and Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, Thomas C. Holt is Professor of American and African American History at the University of Chicago, Frederick Cooper is Professor of History at the University of Michigan and Aims McGuinness is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin‐Milwaukee.
