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The past half-century has produced a mass of information regarding slave resistance, ranging from individual acts of disobedience to massive uprisings. Many of these acts of rebellion have been studied extensively, yet the ultimate goals of the insurgents remain open for discussion. Recently, several historians have suggested that slaves achieved their own freedom by resisting slavery, which counters the predominant argument that abolitionist pressure groups, parliamentarians, and the governmental and anti-governmental armies of the various slaveholding empires were the prime movers behind emancipation. Marques, one of the leading historians of slavery and abolition, argues that, in most cases, it is impossible to establish a direct relation between slaves’ uprisings and the emancipation laws that would be approved in the western countries. Following this presentation, his arguments are taken up by a dozen of the most outstanding historians in this field. In a concluding chapter, Marques responds briefly to their comments and evaluates the degree to which they challenge or enhance his view.
"These differing opinions and the fact that Marques is invited to add Part three, ‘Afterthoughts’, with which the book concludes, make for a lively and comprehensive debate which remains, however, open to further expansion and development" · Ethnicity and Race in a Changing World
Preface
Pieter C. Emmer and Seymour Drescher
PART I
Introduction: Slave Revolts and the Abolition of Slavery: An Overinterpretation
João Pedro Marques
PART II
Chapter 1. Africa and Abolitionism
John Thornton
Chapter 2. Who Abolished Slavery in the Dutch Caribbean?
Pieter C. Emmer
Chapter 3. Slave Resistance and Emancipation: The Case of Saint-Domingue
David Geggus
Chapter 4. Civilizing Insurgency. Two Variants of Slave Revolts in the Age of Revolution
Seymour Drescher
Chapter 5. The Wars of Independence, Slave Soldiers, and the Issue of Abolition in Spanish South America
Peter Blanchard
Chapter 6. Shipboard Slave Revolts and Abolition
David Eltis and Stanley L. Engerman
Chapter 7. Slave Resistance and Abolitionis: A Multifaceteted Issue
Olivier Pétré-Grenouilleau
Chapter 8. Slave Revolts and Abolitionism
David Brion Davis
Chapter 9. The Role of Slave Resistance in Slave Emancipation
Robin Blackburn
Chapter 10. Slave Revolts and the Abolition of Slavery: A Misinterpretation
Hilary Beckles
PART III
Afterthoughts
João Pedro Marques
Notes on Contributors
Bibliography from the Commentaries
Index