British West Indian Newspapers And The Abolition Of Slavery

This book is the first overall survey of the British West Indian press in the early nineteenth century—a critical period in the history of the region. Based on extensive and ground-breaking archival research, this volume provides an in-depth history of early nineteenth-century British West Indian newspapers and potted biographies of the journalists who produced them. The author examines the economics underpinning newspapers, and a political spectrum, unique to the West Indian press, is also posited. Towards one end sat a small group of ‘liberal’ newspapers that outraged white colonists by arguing for civil and political rights to be extended to so-called free coloureds and for the abolition of slavery; scattered at various points towards the other end of the spectrum were newspapers still best collectively described as the ‘planter press’—the traditional term used in the literature. Starting from this basic conceptual framework, the volume shows how the press landscape in the British Caribbean at this time was more volatile and complex than has been previously thought. This volume will be of value to academics, undergraduates and postgraduates studying Caribbean and media history and those interested in modern history.

This book is the first overall survey of the British West Indian press in the early nineteenth century--a critical period in the history of the region. Based on extensive and ground-breaking archival research, this volume provides an in-depth history of early nineteenth-century British West Indian newspapers and potted biographies of the journalists who produced them. The author examines the economics underpinning newspapers, and a political spectrum, unique to the West Indian press, is also posited. Towards one end sat a small group of 'liberal' newspapers that outraged white colonists by arguing for civil and political rights to be extended to so-called free coloureds and for the abolition of slavery; scattered at various points towards the other end of the spectrum were newspapers still best collectively described as the 'planter press'--the traditional term used in the literature. Starting from this basic conceptual framework, the volume shows how the press landscape in the British Caribbean at this time was more volatile and complex than has been previously thought. This volume will be of value to academics, undergraduates and postgraduates studying Caribbean and media history and those interested in modern history.

Slavery helped finance the Industrial Revolution in England. Plantation owners, shipbuilders, and merchants connected with the slave trade accumulated vast fortunes that established banks and heavy industry in Europe and expanded the reach of capitalism worldwide. Eric Williams advanced these powerful ideas in the influential and widely debated Capitalism and Slavery, published in 1944 and based on his previously unavailable dissertation, now available in book form for the first time. Williams’s profound critique became the foundation for studies of imperialism and economic development. Establishing the exploitation of commercial capitalism and its link to racial attitudes, Williams employed a historicist vision that has set the tone for an entire field. The significant differences between his two works allows us to reconsider questions that have lost none of their urgency; indeed, whose importance has increased.

Elizabeth Heyrick (1769-1831) and Alexander McDonnell (1794-1875) held opposing views on slavery in the British colonies at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Published in 1824 and 1827 respectively, these pamphlets remain key documents in the context of post-colonial debates.

This book sheds light on the archipelagic relations of two African Caribbean newspapers in the early decades of the nineteenth century and analyzes their medium-specific interventions in the struggle for emancipation and on a white-dominated communication market.

Excerpt from A Practical View of the Present State of Slavery in the West Indies; Or, an Examination of Mr. Stephen's "Slavery of the British West India Colonies" Containing More Particularly an Account of the Actual Condition of the Negroes in Jamaica; With Observations on the Decrease of the Slaves Since the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and on the Probable Effects of Legislative Emancipation; Also, Strictures On That of West India slavery. There are many in this country, and by no means in the lowest stations, who never hear the subject mentioned but they have before their minds chains, dungeons, scourging, maiming, wounding, and death. To their terrified imaginations it appears the land of horrors, where cruelty sits in brief authority, and the oppressed drag out a gloomy life in groans and tears, without any of the comforts of exist ence, and of course, without manifesting any signs of enjoyment. These false impressions have'been mainly owing to a class of authors and orators in. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

"A most persuasive work that repositions the American debates over emancipation where they clearly belong, in a broader Anglo-Atlantic context." -- Reviews in History While many historians look to internal conflict alone to explain the onset of the American Civil War, in The Problem of Emancipation, Edward Bartlett Rugemer places the origins of the war in a transatlantic context. Addressing a huge gap in the historiography of the antebellum United States, he explores the impact of Britain's abolition of slavery in 1834 on the coming of the war and reveals the strong influence of Britain's old Atlantic empire on the United States' politics. He demonstrates how American slaveholders and abolitionists alike borrowed from the antislavery movement developing on the transatlantic stage to fashion contradictory portrayals of abolition that became central to the arguments for and against American slavery. Richly researched and skillfully argued, The Problem of Emancipation explores a long-neglected aspect of American slavery and the history of the Atlantic World and bridges a gap in our understanding of the American Civil War. "Most discussions about the roots of the American Civil War seldom stray beyond the nation's borders, but Rugemer makes a persuasive case for why that should change." -- Charleston (SC) Post and Courier "A tremendous contribution to the greatest issue and ongoing controversy in pre--twentieth-century American historiography: the causes of the American Civil War. I was quite unprepared for Rugemer's crucial discoveries as he studied the way dozens of southern and northern newspapers responded to the British West Indian slave insurrections, to the British act of emancipation, and to the consequences of this so-called Mighty Experiment. Few historians have shown such sophistication in analyzing the rapidly changing pre--Civil War media and the shifts in public opinion." -- David Brion Davis, author of Inhuman Bondage: The Rise and Fall of Slavery in the New World