The Making of New World Slavery: From the Baroque to the Modern, 1492-1800
The Making of New World Slavery argues that independent commerce, geared to burgeoning consumer markets, was the driving force behind the rise of plantation slavery. The baroque state sought—successfully—to feed upon this commerce and—with markedly less success—to regulate slavery and racial relations. To illustrate this thesis, Blackburn examines the deployment of slaves in the colonial possessions of the Portuguese, the Spanish, the Dutch, the English and the French. Plantation slavery is shown to have emerged from the impulses of civil society, not from the strategies of individual states.
Robin Blackburn argues that the organization of slave plantations placed the West on a destructive path to modernity and that greatly preferable alternatives were both proposed and rejected. Finally, he shows that the surge of Atlantic trade, predicated on the murderous toil of the plantations, made a decisive contribution to both the Industrial Revolution and the rise of the West.
Paperback, 608 pages
ISBN: 9781844676316
August 2010
$29.95 / £19.99 / $31.00CAN
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Other Editions
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Hardback, 608 pages
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ISBN: 9781844676323
August 2010
$95.00 / £60.00
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Part of the Verso World History series
Reviews
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Blackburn's book has finally drawn the veil which concealed or made mysterious the history and development of modem society.
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A magnificent work of contemporary scholarship.
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Sombre, dark and masterly.
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An exhaustive, powerfully written and compelling book.
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Extremely well-researched and readable.... Highly recommended.
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"We are black..."—Verso books for Black History Month
We are black, it is true, but tell us, gentlemen, you who are so judicious, what is the law that says that the black man must belong to and be the property of the white man? ... Yes, gentleman, we are free like you, and it is only by your avarice and our ignorance that anyone is still held in slavery up to this day, and we can neither see nor find the right that you pretend to have over us ... We are your equals then, by natural right, and if nature pleases itself to diversify colours within the human race, it is not a crime to be born black nor an advantage to be white.
This excerpt is from a letter written in July 1792 by the leaders of the revolution of Haitian slaves. The letter has been republished in the collection of writings of the black leader Toussaint L'Overture, The Haitian Revolution, which includes also the correspondence between him and Napoleon Bonaparte. In the late eighteenth century, Toussaint L'Overture and his supporters established the first black republic in the world.
In the United Kingdom, October is Black History Month. The celebration was originally introduced in 1926 on the initiative of Carter G. Woodson, the editor of the Journal of Negro History. In 2007, no fewer than 6,000 events were held in the UK as part of its programme. Here are some key Verso titles relevant to the study and celebration of African and Caribbean history.
"A challenge for the political future"–The American Crucible reviewed in the Independent
Reviewing The American Crucible in the Independent, Stephen Howe highlights the originality of Robin Blackburn's contribution:
If the thousands of historians who have written about Atlantic slavery and its abolition, only a handful have ever given us a really original perspective on that vast subject. Even fewer have proposed a satisfying, or stimulating, general theory about it, an attempt at explaining the rise, fall and enduring consequences of the entire New World slave system across the centuries and continents. Robin Blackburn is prominent—even pre-eminent—among those few. He has tackled the task in a formidable body of work beginning in the late 1980s; but in a rather idiosyncratic way.
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Begin a discussionOther books by Robin Blackburn
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Age Shock
A searing look at the fiscal crisis of an aging society, with radical new proposals. -
An Unfinished Revolution
by Robin Blackburn, Abraham Lincoln, et al.
The impact of the American Civil War on Karl Marx, and Karl Marx on America.
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The American Crucible
A landmark history of the rise, abolition, and legacy of slavery in the New World.
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The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery
"One of the finest studies of slavery and abolition."—Eric Foner
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Banking on Death, Or Investing in Life
A panoramic view of the origins and development of the pension idea.
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After the Fall
Edited by Robin Blackburn
Insightful analysis from leading political thinkers in the aftermath of the collapse of communism.