Negotiating Abolition: The Antislavery Project in the British Strait Settlements, 1786-1843

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Negotiating Abolition: The Antislavery Project in the British Straits Settlements, 1786-1843 explores how sex and gender complicated the enforcement of colonial anti-slavery policies in the region, the challenges local officials faced in identifying slave populations, and how European reclassification of slave labor to systems of indenture or free labor created a new illicit trade for women and girls to the Straits Settlements of Southeast Asia. Through a history of early-19th century slavery and abolition in this often overlooked region in British imperial history, Herzog bridges a historiographical gap between colonial and modern slave systems. She discusses the dynamic intersectionality between perceptions of race, class, gender, and civilization within the Straits and how this informed behavior and policy regarding slavery, abolition, and prostitution within the settlement. This book provides an important new perspective for scholars of slavery interested in Southeast Asia, British imperialism in the Indian Ocean world and Asia, the East India Company in the Straits, and gender and sexuality in the context of empire.

Reviews

Herzogs masterful study of slavery in the Straits Settlements breaks new ground in our understanding of how colonial officials applied their understandings of free labour (originally developed in the context of slavery in the British Atlantic Empire) and applied it to Southeast Asia. I highly recommend Herzogs book. * Gareth Knapman, Research Fellow in History, Australian National University, Australia *
Confidently weaving together the themes of empire, labour, gender and the law, Herzog defines and conceptualises slavery and anti-slavery in the British Straits Settlements. This original and innovative work makes an important and timely contribution to the scholarship of slaverys traumatic legacy in the Indian Ocean World. * Catherine Armstrong, Senior Lecturer in Modern History, Loughborough University, UK *

Author Bio

Shawna Herzog is an Instructor in History at Washington State University, USA. Her primary research and teaching fields are imperialism, gender, modern Britain and the British Empire, and slavery in the Indian Ocean World.