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      • Trusted Partner
        April 2022

        The Blackest Thing in Slavery Was Not the Black Man

        The Last Testament of Eric Williams

        by Brinsley Samaroo

        The Blackest Thing in Slavery Was Not the Black Man: The Last Testament of Eric Williams represents the final instalment of research and analysis by one of the Caribbean’s foremost historians. In this volume, Eric Williams reflects on the institution of slavery from the ancient period in Europe down to New World African slavery and considers, too, other forms of bondage that followed slavery, including of Japanese, Chinese, Indians and Pacific peoples in many locations worldwide. Williams points ways in which this bondage led to European and American prosperity and the manner in which bonded peoples created their own spaces. This they did through the preservation and revival of the transported culture to the new locations.   The Blackest Thing in Slavery makes a significant contribution in that it moves beyond African slavery. It continues the narrative after abolition by showing how the capitalist impulse enabled Europe and the United States to devise other (non-slavery) ways of further exploiting of non-African people in developing countries. These nations fought this further exploitation in banding together to create the south-to-south nonaligned movement, which gave mutual assistance in a number of areas. Most other works tend to separate these issues or deal with them on a regional basis. Eric Williams offers a comprehensive view, tying together many themes in a vast compendium.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        June 2014

        The harem, slavery and British imperial culture

        Anglo-Muslim relations in the late nineteenth century

        by Diane Robinson-Dunn, Andrew Thompson, John Mackenzie, Kim Latham

        This book focuses on British efforts to suppress the traffic in female slaves destined for Egyptian harems during the late nineteenth century. It considers this campaign in relation to gender debates in England, and examines the ways in which the assumptions and dominant imperialist discourses of these abolitionists were challenged by the newly established Muslim communities in England, as well as by English people who converted to or were sympathetic with Islam. While previous scholars treated antislavery activity in Egypt first and foremost as an extension of earlier efforts to abolish plantation slavery in the New World, this book considers it in terms of encounters with Islam during a period which it argues marked a new departure in Anglo-Muslim relations. This approach illuminates the role of Islam in the creation of English national identities within the global cultural system of the British Empire. This book will appeal to those with an interest in British imperial history; Islam; gender, feminism and women's studies; slavery and race; the formation of national identities; global processes; Orientalism; and Middle Eastern studies. ;

      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        September 2023

        Negotiating relief and freedom

        Responses to disaster in the British Caribbean, 1812-1907

        by Oscar Webber

        Negotiating relief and freedom is an investigation of short- and long-term responses to disaster in the British Caribbean colonies during the 'long' nineteenth century. It explores how colonial environmental degradation made their inhabitants both more vulnerable to and expanded the impact of natural phenomena such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. It shows that British approaches to disaster 'relief' prioritised colonial control and 'fiscal prudence' ahead of the relief of the relief of suffering. In turn, that this pattern played out continuously in the long nineteenth century is a reminder that in the Caribbean the transition from slavery to waged labour was not a clean one. Times of crisis brought racial and social tensions to the fore and freedoms once granted, were often quickly curtailed.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        July 2021

        The bonds of family

        Slavery, commerce and culture in the British Atlantic world

        by Katie Donington

        Moving between Britain and Jamaica The bonds of family reconstructs the world of commerce, consumption and cultivation sustained through an extended engagement with the business of slavery. Transatlantic slavery was both shaping of and shaped by the dynamic networks of family that established Britain's Caribbean empire. Tracing the activities of a single extended family - the Hibberts - this book explores how slavery impacted on the social, cultural, economic and political landscape of Britain. It is a history of trade, colonisation, enrichment and the tangled web of relations that gave meaning to the transatlantic world. The Hibberts's trans-generational story imbricates the personal and the political, the private and the public, the local and the global. It is both the intimate narrative of a family and an analytical frame through which to explore Britain's history and legacies of slavery.

      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2007

        ‘Chords of freedom’

        Commemoration, ritual and British transatlantic slavery

        by J. R. Oldfield

        How should we as Britons remember transatlantic slavery? How has slavery been remembered in the past? 'Chords of freedom' sets out to answer these questions and, in doing so, traces the way in which British transatlantic slavery has been absorbed into the nation's collective memory. By combining two current historiographical preoccupations - the construction of public memory and British transatlantic slavery - this fascinating book focuses on the way in which the British traditionally have been taught to view transatlantic slavery through the moral triumph of abolition. The author traces the construction of this national history through a number of case studies, including visual images, literary memorials (the competing accounts of the anti-slavery movement produced by Thomas Clarkson and Robert and Samuel Wilberforce), monument-memorials, galleries and museums, and commemorative rituals from the nineteenth century to the present day. A separate chapter also considers how Britain's example in abolishing first the slave trade (1807) and then colonial slavery (1833-34) impacted on the rituals of the American anti-slavery movement, and served as a convenient symbol of the potential of freedom in the British West Indies. 'Chords of freedom' offers valuable new insights into the way in which a 'culture of abolition' took root in Britain, and how our views of transatlantic slavery and figures like William Wilberforce have been revised and amended to reflect the changing demands of a series of 'present days'. Its cross-disciplinary approach will appeal to a broad spectrum of specialists, as well as to undergraduates and postgraduates. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        June 2010

        Biografía de un cimarrón

        By Miguel Barnet and Esteban Montejo

        by Catherine Davies, William Rowlandson

        This Biography of a runaway slave is arguably the best-known book to have been written and published in revolutionary Cuba, being the testimonial narrative of Esteban Montejo, a former slave, runaway, and soldier in the Cuban wars of independence. The text is the collaboration between ethnographer Miguel Barnet and Montejo, the result of three years of tape-recorded interviews, transcribed, edited and annotated by Barnet. Montejo provides a first-hand account of slavery in nineteenth-century Cuba - the language, religion, music, and customs - and describes life in the sugar plantations and mills and as a runaway slave. Montejo's text also covers key historical moments, from slavery to Abolition, the Ten Years War, the Spanish American War, and US intervention in the new republic. Reflecting the growing interest in Latin American and Cuban Studies, this student edition includes the complete text in Spanish, notes in English, a time-line of Cuban history and themes for debate and discussion. The extensive introduction focuses on three main areas: an overview of Cuban history featuring slavery, wars of independence and the new republic; an overview of the genre of the testimonial narrative as it emerged as an important literary style in revolutionary Cuba; and an analysis of the relationship between the Cuban Revolution and the publication of the text. There is also an extensive bibliography. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        November 2022

        Frontier narratives

        by Steven Hutchinson

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA

        Eldéric et le Livres des Mondes 2 (Eldéric and the Book of Worlds 2)

        by Marie Desvignes

        Eldéric continues his journey to the continent of Onirix to find the manuscripts of the Book of Worlds. This is the only way to restore freedom to the Menz people, kept in slavery by the spell of the witch Theuz. With the help of his friends Souleyman and Alderia, he breaks down the doors of this world of horror designed by the witch and confronts her in her own palace. Will we finally, after many decades, witness the fall of the cruel and despicable Theuz? Will Eldéric be able to take the treasure back to the White Queen and return home?

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        September 2021

        Chosen peoples

        The Bible, race and empire in the long nineteenth century

        by Gareth Atkins, Shinjini Das, Brian Murray

        Chosen peoples demonstrates how biblical themes, ideas and metaphors shaped racial, national and imperial identities in the long nineteenth century. Even as radical new ideas challenged the historicity of the Bible, biblical notions of lineage, descent and inheritance continued to inform understandings of race, nation and empire. European settler movements portrayed 'new' territories across the seas as lands of Canaan, but if many colonised and conquered peoples resisted the imposition of biblical narratives, they also appropriated biblical tropes to their own ends. These innovative case-studies throw new light on familiar areas such as slavery, colonialism and the missionary project, while forging exciting cross-comparisons between race, identity and the politics of biblical translation and interpretation in South Africa, Egypt, Australia, America and Ireland.

      • Trusted Partner

        UNKNOWN CAPOEIRA VOLUME II

        A History of the Original Brazilian Martial Art

        by Mestre Ricardo (Cachorro)

        Capoeira, an original Afro-Brazilian discipline, is not so easily defined due to its numerous facets, as a deadly martial art, an exotic dancing discipline, inspired by an ancient far-away culture.  Nearly four hundred years of slave trade brought to Brazil an envyingly cultural heritage, composed of a continuous influx of different ethnic groups, which, concomitant with the different native, African and European regional expressions and its rich constant geopolitical changes, has produced a singular, colorful and vibrant multicultural and multiethnic society engaged in their new Brazilian identity.  From the XVIII to the XIX century, the harsh conditions with which black slaves were treated led to increasing numbers of slave revolts in the Americas, where escaped slaves forming independent Maroon communities in French, Hispanic, British and the Netherlands Antilles, and the Quilombola communities in Brazil, organized fighting guerrilla wars against the plantation masters and owners, giving rise to campaigns against slavery in Europe and the abolition of slavery in the Americas. Capoeira became the result of Brazil’s own diasporic experience, a branch of a large tree which grew into a unique and complex social art that cannot be dissociated from its historical and anthropological perspectives.  The Amazing History of Capoeira, written by expert Brazilian capoeira Mestre Ricardo Cachorro, unveils the Age of Exploration and the resulted Atlantic slave trade, unfolding African slavery in Europe as early as in the 15th century, much before black slaves were taken to the New World. The enchanting saga of the Akindele family from the beautiful Yoruba kingdom of Adágún L}wá will take you deeply into pre-colonial Africa and to the lands of newly explored Bahia de Todos os Santos in 1531, where the almost sacred history of capoeira began.   From the new findings in Africa to the discoveries in Brazil, this captivating book navigates through the Feitorias and Capitanias – the sugarcane mills of the 17th century – the real and virtually unknown cradle of capoeira. It brings to surface beautiful historic and cultural aspects of the colonial periods with its arts, music and religion, the African melting pot which was formed from the blend of ancient African cultures and the new Afro-Brazilian rural and urban settings and, finally, the old and the modern founders of capoeira.  The Amazing History of Capoeira is a delicious treat for all Capoeira's lovers, practitioners, and instructors who want to know more about this original Afro-Brazilian discipline, as well as students of history, anthropology, art, music, theatre, and related fields – all the way from the academic researcher to the curious history & culture lover.  An English-language edition was  published in fall 2012. 224 pages, 16.5X24 cm with full-color photographs& B/W illustrations. And if it also makes you desire to actually practice the art of capoeira in the roda, you will be most welcome then to read: UNKNOWN CAPOEIRA: Secret Techniques of the Original Brazilian Martial Art

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2017

        Imperial persuaders

        Images of Africa and Asia in British advertising

        by Anandi Ramamurthy

        The first book to provide an historical survey of images of black people in advertising during the colonial period. Analyses the various conflicting, and changing ideologies of colonialism and racism in British advertising. Reveals the historical and production context of many well known advertising icons, as well as the specific commercial interests that various companies' images projected. Provides a chronological understanding of changing colonial ideologies in relation to advertising, while each chapter explores images produced to sell specific products, such as soap, cocoa, tea and tobacco.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2024

        Rethinking untouchability

        The political thought of B. R. Ambedkar

        by Jesús F. Cháirez-Garza

        This book examines the transformation of untouchability into a political idea in India during the first half of the twentieth century. At its heart is Ambedkar's role and the concepts he used to champion untouchability as a political problem. Ambedkar's main objective was to comprehend the numerous avatars of untouchability in order to eradicate this practice. Ambedkar understood untouchability beyond aspects of ritual purity and pollution by stressing its complex nature and uncovering the political, historical, racial, spatial and emotional characteristics contained in this concept. Ambedkar believed the abolition of untouchability depended on a widespread alteration of India's political, economic and cultural systems. Ambedkar reframed the problem of untouchability by linking it to larger concepts floating in the political environment of late colonial India such as representation, slavery, race, the Indian village, internationalism and even the creation of Pakistan.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        January 2024

        Dog politics

        Species stories and the animal sciences

        by Mariam Motamedi Fraser

        Do dogs belong with humans? Scientific accounts of dogs' 'species story,' in which contemporary dog-human relations are naturalised with reference to dogs' evolutionary becoming, suggest that they do. Dog politics dissects this story. This book offers a rich empirical analysis and critique of the development and consolidation of dogs' species story in science, asking what evidence exists to support it, and what practical consequences, for dogs, follow from it. It explores how this story is woven into broader scientific shifts in understandings of species, animals, and animal behaviours, and how such shifts were informed by and informed transformative political events, including slavery and colonialism, the Second World War and its aftermath, and the emergence of anti-racist movements in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The book pays particular attention to how species-thinking bears on 'race,' racism, and individuals.

      • Trusted Partner
        History of medicine
        May 2017

        Leprosy and colonialism

        Suriname under Dutch rule, 1750–1950

        by Stephen Snelders. Series edited by Professor Keir Waddington

        Leprosy and colonialism investigates the history of leprosy in Suriname within the context of Dutch colonial power and racial conflict, from the plantation economy and the age of slavery to its legacy in the modern colonial state. It explores the relationship between the modern stigmatization and exclusion of people affected with leprosy, and the political tensions and racial fears originating in colonial slave society, exerting their influence until after the decolonization up to the present day. In the book colonial sources are read from shifting perspectives, of the colonial rulers and, 'from below', the ruled. Though leprosy is today a neglected tropical disease, recognizing influences of our colonial heritage in our global management of health and disease, and exploring the perspectives of other cultures are essential in a time in which migration movements make the permeability of boundaries, and transmission of diseases, more common then perhaps ever before.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        May 2020

        A history of humanitarianism, 1755–1989

        In the name of others

        by Silvia Salvatici

        The book traces the history of international humanitarianism from the anti-slavery movement to the end of the cold war. It is based on an extensive survey of the international literature and is retold in an original narrative that relies on a close examination of the sources. The reconstruction of humanitarianism's long history unfolds around some crucial moments and events: the colonial expansion of European countries, the two world wars and their aftermaths, the emergence of a new postcolonial order. In terms of its contents, narrative style, interpretative approach the book is aimed at a large and diverse public including: scholars who are studying and teaching humanitarianism; students who need to learn about humanitarianism as part of their training or research; operators and volunteers who are engaged in the field; non-specialist readers who are interested in the topic because of its relevance to current events.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        July 2013

        The African presence

        Representations of Africa in the construction of Britishness

        by Graham Harrison

        This book considers the ways that representations of Africa have contributed to the changing nature of British national identity. Using interviews, photo archives, media coverage, advertisements, and web material, the book focuses on major Africa campaigns: the abolition of slavery, anti-apartheid, 'Drop the Debt', and 'Make Poverty History'. Using a hybrid theoretical framework, the book argues that the representation of Africa has been mainly about imagining virtuous Britishness rather than generating detailed understandings of Africa. The book develops this argument through a historical review of 200 years of Africa campaigning. It also looks more closely at recent and contemporary campaigning, opening up new issues and possibilities for campaigning: the increasing use of consumer identities, electronic media, and aspects of globalisation. This book will be of interest to anyone interested in postcolonial politics, relations between Britain and Africa, and development studies. ;

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