Freedom's Debtors : British Antislavery in Sierra Leone in the Age of Revolution / Padraic X. Scanlan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Scanlan, Padraic X., Author.

Series:

Lewis Walpole series in eighteenth-century culture and history.

The Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth-Century Culture and History

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Slavery--Sierra Leone.

Slavery.

Abolitionists--Sierra Leone.

Abolitionists.

Antislavery movements--Sierra Leone.

Antislavery movements.

Sierra Leone--Politics and government--19th century.

Sierra Leone.

Great Britain--Colonies--Africa--Administration.

Great Britain.

Sierra Leone--History--18th century.

Sierra Leone--History--19th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (316 pages) : illustrations, maps.

Place of Publication:

New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, [2017]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

A history of the abolition of the British slave trade in Sierra Leone and how the British used its success to justify colonialism in Africa British anti-slavery, widely seen as a great sacrifice of economic and political capital on the altar of humanitarianism, was in fact profitable, militarily useful, and crucial to the expansion of British power in West Africa. After the slave trade was abolished, anti-slavery activists in England profited, colonial officials in Freetown, Sierra Leone, relied on former slaves as soldiers and as cheap labor, and the British armed forces conscripted former slaves to fight in the West Indies and in West Africa. At once scholarly and compelling, this history of the abolition of the British slave trade in Sierra Leone draws on a wealth of archival material. Scanlan's social and material study offers insight into how the success of British anti-slavery policies were used to justify colonialism in Africa. He reframes a moment considered to be a watershed in British public morality as rather the beginning of morally ambiguous, violent, and exploitative colonial history.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Antislavery on a Slave Coast

2. Let That Heart Be English

3. The Vice-Admiralty Court

4. The Absolute Disposal of the Crown

5. The Liberated African Department

Epilogue: MacCarthy's Skull

Notes

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 26. Nov 2019)

ISBN:

0-300-23152-0

OCLC:

1004848451