The Making of New World Slavery

Robin Blackburn's mighty tome talces readers on a historical journey throughthree hundred years of colonial slavery in the New World. As one travels throughEurope, Africa, and the Americas, one meets a wide range of characters: slaves,slave traders, merchants, seamen, national navies and armies, free and indenturedlaborers, planters, national leaders, and government officials, all of whom have apart to play that is duly examined by the author. The author has drawn on a verywide variety of sow-ces: American, British, Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese,and Latin texts, ranging from the texts of antiquity to those of the late twentiethcentury. Some useful maps of the period are included, as well as infonnative illustrationsand many tables of economic and demographic surveys of the colonies.The detailed notes provide helpful signposts to readers wishing to pursue certainaspects of slavery and related topics in greater depth. The book comprises twelvechapters as well as an introduction, an epilogue, and a comprehensive index.In the Introduction, the author describes the book as "an account of the makingof the European systems of colonial slavery in the Americas" (p. 3). The authorattempts to show its role in the advent of modernity and to examine slavery in itshistorical perspective as an ever-present reality. Indeed, slavery existed from theearliest of times and was accepted as part of life by the Greek and Roman civilizationsand later by Christianity. The main justification for slavery was difference -implying inferiority -which could be derived from ethnicity, color, social status,genealogy, or criminal behavior. Prisoners of war were also frequently enslaved ...