The Routledge History of Slavery

The Routledge History of Slavery is a landmark publication that provides an overview of the main themes surrounding the history of slavery from Ancient Greece to the present day. Taking stock of the field of slave studies, the book explores the major advances that have taken place in the past few decades in this crucial field.

Offering a transnational history of slavery, the chapters have all been specially commissioned for the collection. The volume begins by delineating the global nature of the institution of slavery, examining slavery in different parts of the world and over time. Topics covered here include slavery in Africa and the Indian Ocean World as well as the transatlantic slave trade. In Part 2, the chapters explore different themes that define slavery, including slave culture, the slave economy, slave resistance and the planter class, as well as areas of life affected by slavery such as family and work. The final part goes on to study changes and continuities over time, looking at abolition, the aftermath of emancipation and commemoration. The volume concludes with a chapter on modern slavery.

Including essays on all the key topics and issues, this important collection from a leading international group of scholars presents a comprehensive survey of the current state of the field. It will be essential reading for all those interested in the history of slavery.

Gad Heuman is Professor of History and has served as Director of the Centre for Caribbean Studies at the University of Warwick, UK. He is author of Between Black and White (1981), The Killing Time (1994) and The Caribben (2006). He is editor of the journal Slavery & Abolition.
Trevor Burnard is Professor of American History at the University of Warwick, UK. He specialises in the history of plantation societies and slavery in the Americas, and is author of Mastery, Tyranny, and Desire: Thomas Thistlewood and his Slaves in the Anglo-Jamaican World (2004).