Slavery and Antislavery in Spain's Atlantic Empire [Paperback]

African slavery was pervasive in Spains Atlantic empire yet remained in the margins of the imperial economy until the end of the eighteenth century when the plantation revolution in the Caribbean colonies put the slave traffic and the plantation at the center of colonial exploitation and conflict. The international group of scholars brought together in this volume explain Spains role as a colonial pioneer in the Atlantic world and its latecomer status as a slave-trading, plantation-based empire. These contributors map the broad contours and transformations of slave-trafficking, the plantation, and antislavery in the Hispanic Atlantic while also delving into specific topics that include: the institutional and economic foundations of colonial slavery; the law and religion; the influences of the Haitian Revolution and British abolitionism; antislavery and proslavery movements in Spain; race and citizenship; and the business of the illegal slave trade.

This important collection of essays illustrates the rich work about Spanish slavery and antislavery that has been produced recently in Spain and the United States. Spanish abolitionism is viewed in the Spanish imperial context, its specific relation to slavery, and its connection to broader Atlantic processes. The volume will surely inspire continued debate among scholars in Europe and the United States, as well, hopefully, as Latin America.? New West Indian Guide

The essays in this volume make an important contribution to understanding the process through which European empires shifted, as Seymour Dreschers aptly titled contribution puts it, 'from empires of slavery to empires of antislavery'(p. 291). They do so by centering on Spain and its Atlantic empire. This focus results in the volumes most significant contribution and resounding statement: that the Spanish empire, far from being a case apart in the study of slavery and abolition (p. 1), played an important rolel£ç