Societies After Slavery

The editors of this remarkable volume have produced an important research tool for anyone interested in the social, economic, political, and ideological changes brought by the emancipation of slaves in the British West Indies, Spanish and Portuguese America, and Africa. The broadly inclusive coverage of both primary and secondary sources dealing with slave owners and non-owners, slaves and free persons of color including immigrant labor, the long time frame, the descriptive annotations, and the brief insightful introductory essays make the bibliography invaluable for researchers at every level. Teachers who want to introduce their students to the subject and to original research in primary documents, those just beginning their investigations of a particular area, and specialists in one area seeking new insights by adding a comparative breadth to their research will all find this bibliography indispensable.

The first [bibliography] dedicated to the often neglected postemancipation history of former slave-owning societies. . . . The editors present more than 1,600 entries in many languages, arranged geographically and subdivided by type of resource, most of them annotated. . . . Also delves into sources beyond the expected studies of former slaves and slave owners, e.g., the effects of urbanization and immigration during this transitional period.

The editors of this valuable book recognize that the combination of diversity and interconnection between the regions of the world system created by European capitalist expansion and its system of slavery and transfers of peoples around the world makes the subject of this bibliography a difficult one to grasp. They identify the rich field of scholarship around slavery within the Atlantic system but argue that the process of emancipation has been much less studies in a comparative and integrated context.

An impressive collective effort, fully alive to the unending ramifications of the subject.