An Essay concerning Slavery: A Mid-Eighteenth Century Analysis from Jamaica

作者：Robertson James^*

来源：Slavery and Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies , 2012, 33(1): 65-85.

DOI：10.1080/0144039X.2011.604564

An anonymous pamphlet about slavery from mid eighteenth-century Jamaica adopted unexpected arguments. It offered radical suggestions for reforming the practice of slaveholding in a militarily vulnerable colony prone to slave plots and revolts. A dialogue format allowed its author to discuss a number of remedies, in the hope that a reasoned case could persuade the Ministry in London to act, rescuing the colonials from themselves by pushing Parliament to restrain Britain's slave trade. The arguments in this unexpectedly early text provide a fresh standpoint for reappraising the narrative of anti-slavery reform, offering an alternative perspective on where these arguments could start; on the legal options for challenging slavery within the common law tradition prior to the Somerset decision in 1772; and on the implications for individual colonial societies of the precedents that Somerset overturned.

• 出版日期2012