Modernizing slavery : investigating the legal dimension

Abstract

Reviews the laws devised by the imperial government to dismantle the slave labor system in the period 1823-38 in order to locate the moment of articulation between chattel and wage slavery. According to the author, the distinguishing feature of these new laws was that the workers lost the right to labor bargaining. Abolition brought free status and civil rights, but the new labor system was not less rigorous.

Keywords

• British Caribbean
• slavery
• legal history