Freedom: The Overthrow of the Slave Empires

by James Walvin

The critically acclaimed author of Sugar explains one of the major shifts in Western history in the past five centuries—the end of the slave empires.

In this timely and readable new work, Walvin focuses not on abolitionism or the brutality and suffering of slavery, but on the resistance of the enslaved themselves—from sabotage and absconding to full-blown uprisings—and its impact in overthrowing slavery. He also looks at whole Atlantic world, including the Spanish Empire and Brazil, all of which revolved around slavery.

In the three centuries following Columbus's landfall in the Americas, slavery became a critical institution across swathes of both North and South America. It saw twelve million Africans forced onto slave ships, and had seismic consequences for Africa while leading to the transformation of the Americas and to the material enrichment of the Western world. It was also largely unquestioned.

Yet within a mere seventy-five years, slavery had vanished from the it declined, collapsed and was destroyed by a complexity of forces that, to this day, remains disputed, but there is no doubting that it was in large part defeated by those it had enslaved. Slavery itself came in many shapes and sizes. It is perhaps best remembered on the plantations of the American south, but slavery varied enormously from one crop to sugar, tobacco, rice, coffee, cotton. And there was in addition myriad tasks for the enslaved to do, from shipboard and dockside labor, from factories to the frontier, through to domestic labor and child-care duties.

Slavery was, then, both ubiquitous and varied. But if all these millions of diverse, enslaved people had one thing in common it was a universal detestation of their bondage. Most of these enslaved peoples did not live to see freedom. But an old freed man or woman in Cuba or Brazil in the 1880s would have lived through its destruction clean across the Americas. The collapse of slavery and the triumph of black freedom constitutes an extraordinary historical upheaval, one which still resonates throughout the world today.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Historical, Race

320 pages, Hardcover

Published September 3, 2019

About the author

James Walvin taught for many years at the University of York where he is now Professor of History Emeritus. He also held visiting positions in the Caribbean, the U.S.A. and Australia. He won the prestigious Martin Luther King Memorial Prize for his book Black and White, and has published widely on the history of slavery and the slave trade. His book The People's Game was a pioneering study of the history of football and remains in print thirty years after its first publication.

Reviews

[Keen Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

“More than eleven million Africans landed in the Americas as slaves.”

What a line to open up a book. And of course let’s not forget five of the first seven US presidents were slave owners, and the largest single slave owner in Spanish America was the Catholic Church. Some other interesting facts include,

“Of all the people (Europeans and Africans) who landed in the Americas before 1820, the Atlantic slave ships transported 80%. African slaves were the major pioneers of great expanses of the Americas.”

“95% of all Africans were landed either in Brazil or the Caribbean; and fewer than 4% landed in what became the USA.”

“In little more than a century and a half after 1642, the Dutch, British and French carried more than five million Africans across the Atlantic.”

Walvin nicely illustrate how the commercial fruits were spread throughout various cities and areas, at one stage “an estimated 40% of Liverpool’s income was derived from its slaving business.” Or in Brazil, “By mid-century, Rio was home to more than 200,000 people, of whom 80,000 were slaves. In Porto Alegre, upwards of one-third of the 17,226 inhabitants were enslaved. In some urban areas, almost half the population were slaves.”

Of course the banning of slave trade in 1807 is quite different to the banning of slavery, it’s a bit like telling prisoners, to be grateful and excited that there will be no more prisoners, but still keeping them locked up indefinitely!

“Ships from Rio and Salvador were the largest carrier of slaves (1.5 and 1.36 million); Liverpool was the third largest with 1.32 million.”

Again this is an area where smaller players were only to keen to get involved in the action, Cowes, Poole, Lyme Regis, Oulton, Whitehaven and Lancaster all dispatched a ship to trade for African slaves. Elsewhere we learn that even the Danes, Swedes and Germans got in on the act, albeit on a smaller scale.

“By 1789 about 600,000 were at work in the colony:” The slave revolt of 1791 in Saint-Domingue, which eventually became Haiti, was really well told and put the fear out to the rest of the slave owning world. He also references slave rebellions elsewhere, like there being evidence of around 500 shipboard rebellions.

There are 148 known cases of slave ships being totally lost to the depths. In many of the cases of vessels being shipwrecked, the captains would flee often leaving hundreds of slaves shackled and left to drown in the sinking ship, like in the case of one shipwreck in 1738 which resulted in 702 Africans being drowned.

Walvin is very adept at exposing the contradictions and anomalies of the so called ending of the slave trade. For instance US Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act as late on as 1850. This authorized federal law officers to enforce its terms in free states, enabling slave owners to hunt slaves in other states and this even extended to imposing heavy penalties on anyone protecting escapee slaves.

Of course 3 million slaves still headed across the Atlantic during the 60 years after the UK and US outlawed the slave trade, thanks to Cuba and Brazil. British colonial slavery lived on for another generation. The wealthy slave owning class demanded and received compensation, (£20 million in a deal brokered by the Rothschilds), unlike the slaves, who received nothing, and although slavery “ended” in the summer of 1834, apprenticeship still continued and didn’t stop until 1838. Apprenticeship was to last for 6 years and involved ex-slaves working 40-45 hours a week unpaid for their former workers. If you think that sounds suspiciously like slavery then you are not mistaken.

This is the second book I’ve read and enjoyed by Walvin, and I’d say this is as good as any short primer, for those with an interest in the history of the Atlantic slave trade. Walvin does a fine job of summarising the major aspects of the Atlantic slave trade, without labouring the point or getting too academic or tedious. He keeps this fresh and engaging throughout without losing momentum.

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. Explains the role slave rebellions played in abolition.

[BookTrib.com]

In Freedom: The Overthrow of the Slave Empires (Pegasus Books), James Walvin traces the rise and fall of the transatlantic slave trade with a focus on the constant tension that intrinsically defined the relationship between the slave and his or her master. From the outset, the slave owner had to tread carefully in his or her treatment of the slave as his or her material wealth depended upon the reliable work ethic of the slave.

Toiling in the field and farms across the Americas, the slave existed as the indispensable link in the global trading networks connecting the Americas with the wider world. For this reason, it is worth considering the role of the slave in the gradual erosion of the institution. Violent slave rebellions alone cannot answer the question at the heart of Freedom: why and how did an institution which brought unparalleled material prosperity to the European powers eventually crumble?

Walvin presents the reader with a nuanced evaluation as to the factors which slowly eroded the institution of slavery. Undoubtedly, the process of amending the laws to the institution of slavery occurred in fits and starts. Walvin highlights the dispersion of French Revolutionary ideals emanating from Paris in the late 18th century, coupled with the colonial wars of independence across American colonies, as gradually changing public opinion in regard to the morality of enslaved labor. Yet it would be a mistake to believe that concern for the well-being of the slave alone would compel an alteration to an institution upon which the global economy revolved around.

The rest of the review: https://booktrib.com/2019/09/james-wa...

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I disagree with the author's central premise (that slave revolts resulted in the end of slavery), but the book was still an enjoyable and illuminating, yet easy read, especially having never read about slavery from the British perspective before.

The parts about Anthony Benezet were especially cool (for me), because he was a distant relative and I've long wondered if his writings as an abolitionist did any good. Apparently, at least one person thinks so. The influence of Quakers on the movement is fascinating.

I appreciated the parts about slavery in modern times as well, because this is a subject that is too seldom written about. The number of people currently enslaved (or trafficked) is kind of mind-blowing, even compared to colonial times.

Overall, worth reading primarily for the unique perspective, but also as a broad look at historical slavery with lots of facts and figures. A bit repetitive at times.

[Ernst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written history of slavery with an emphasis on how the American slave empires were forced to get rid of slavery. Separate sections deal with the ending of slavery in the United States, Brazil, and the rest of Latin America. A final section deals with the use of slavery by the Axis powers in World War II, and the almost 30 million people currently considered to be in slavery in India and other countries.

[Jodie · Rating 4 out of 5]

As others have said, this book is a wee bit repetitive, but very accessible and not "tedious" (i.e. too academic for the common reader). I had stopped reading it half way through for a while as I felt the repetition and narrative style weren't for me. But in hindsight as someone who has never studied the transatlantic slave trade whatsoever, this book was exactly what I needed to introduce such a vile and horrifying topic to me in a coherent and accessible way.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great, easy, feel-good read. Wait, no it's not, it's a horrifically depressing read about slavery and the untold wealth stolen by the imperial core on the back of over 12 million enslaved Africans across a 400 year period. This taught me more than school or any other source; if you don't understand the arguments for reparations and the very real impact slavery has in driving inequality to this day, you simply didn't pay attention.

A fantastically written book about a very unfantastic topic.

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Walvin offers an interesting and important thesis about the role of slave defiance in the abolition movement, but doesn't quite go deep enough into it to make his case. A little too much focus on the legislative and political maneuverings of abolitionists and not quite enough on the ostensible point of the book.

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

Walvin focuses on the role of enslaved people in ending the slave empires. Even when political, religious, and social forces resulted in the legal end of slavery, it was the constant pressure of resistance - non-violent and violent - that drove abolition forward. Escapes, rebellions, and even slowdowns and minimal effort showed that enslaved people did not accept their imposed condition.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

A capsule history of the African Slave trade in the Americas with a focus on the Carribean, Mexico, the USA and Brazil. The book tells a good story, but lacks the level of documentation that would make it helpful for scholars.

[Esmeralda Rocha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this... And I like the premise. But I just wanted so much more detail and analysis from this.

[Karen Painter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got about 1/3 of the way thru it but gave up on it as it just wasn't holding my attention.

[Jo-jean Keller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly eye-opening book. I feel like I've learned more from "Freedom" than I had learned in all my years previously. Very detailed and well researched.

[Chani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot reading this. Repetitive at times, but a good overview of the ending of slavery in many locations.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very important read.

[Paul McCormack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely comprehensive and fascinating but the dazzling array of facts and figures takes a bit from the flow. Recommended

[Dean HOCK1NG · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a while to read this book as after an interesting beginning it tailed off during the mid section. In the end though I found it informative and eye opening and it is a book that I would recommend to others.