Worthy of freedom : indenture and free labor in the era of emancipation / Jonathan Connolly.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Connolly, Jonathan, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indentured servants--Great Britain--Colonies.

Indentured servants.

Contract labor--Great Britain--Colonies.

Contract labor.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (265 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2024.

Summary:

"In this book, historian Jonathan Connolly traces the normalization of indenture from its controversial beginnings to its widespread adoption across the British Empire in the 1860s. Initially, indenture caused scandal and was viewed as a covert revival of slavery. But soon enough, a changing economic landscape in the colonies altered how it was perceived, and it was increasingly viewed as a legitimate form of free labor and a means of preserving the promise of abolition. Connolly explains how, over time, the large-scale, state-sponsored migration of Indian subjects to work in sugar plantations across Mauritius, British Guiana, and Trinidad was justified as a supposed force for progress. Excavating legal and public debates and tracing practical applications of the law, Connolly carefully reconstructs how the categories of free and unfree labor were made and remade to suit the interests of capital and empire, showing that emancipation was not simply a triumphal event but, rather, a deeply contested process. In so doing, he advances an original interpretation of how indenture changed the meaning of "freedom" in a post-abolition world"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Introduction

1. The Scandal of Indenture and the Making of State Regulation, 1834-1845

2. Free Labor Contested: Indenture and the Limits of Freedom, 1838-1849

3. Indenture and Free Trade, 1846-1853

4. Consolidating Indenture, 1848-1862

5. Vagrancy, Free Labor, and State Power, 1859-1871

6. Scandal Revived? Royal Commissions of Inquiry and the Persistence of Labor Control, 1869-1878

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

List of Abbreviations

Notes

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780226833637

0226833631

OCLC:

1420830523