Distant Ripples Of The British Abolitionist Wave

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This collection of essays probes British efforts to abolish the slave trade internationally in the 19th century and how they impacted local discourses and practices relating to slavery and abolition in other continents and countries (Africa, the Americas, Asia). Coming in the wake of the bicentennial of the abolition of the slave trade by Britain in 1807, it insists on the ambiguous imperial ambitions of Britain, as well as on local initiatives to abolish slavery which did not simply draw their inspiration from Britain and the humanitarian rhetoric of the abolitionists. The book also highlights local resistance and opposition to British influence exerted through diplomatic and economic pressure, in an age of nationalism and still profitable slave-based economies. It portrays the 19th-century movement to abolish slavery as a truly international phenomenon, responding to local and national rationales and discourses as well as British influence.