Testimonies of Enslavement: Sources on Slavery from the Indian Ocean World

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Drawing on the rich archives of the Court of Justice of Cochin, a main settlement of the Dutch East India Company, this book presents ten court cases that deal with themes of enslavement and enslavebility. Offering detailed insights into interrogations and testimonies, they paint a unique picture of the complex historical realities in which processes of enslavement and relations of slavery were shaped. Each original Dutch transcript is followed by an English translation, shedding light on the interactions between local systems of bondage and global systems of commodified slavery, and providing a new perspective on the global history of slavery.Analysing slavery in the Indian Ocean and South Asia, these case studies examine the dynamics of bondage, caste and social control, while offering a counterpoint to the traditional focus on Atlantic slavery.

Reviews

The volume is a great first step to rehabilitate the past of enslaved subjects and the conditions that shaped their lives. This collection of source materials will be of great interest to students and scholars of global slavery, legal history, South Asian studies, and the growing field of Indian Ocean social and cultural histories. * Cultural and Social History: The Journal of the Social History Society *
These rich testimonies provide a unique insight into the neglected experiences of slaves and bonded labourers in the Indian Ocean world. The introduction presents a challenging new agenda for comparative research on the history of global slavery. * Nigel Worden, Emeritus Professor of History, University of Cape Town, South Africa *
Matthias van Rossum is an excellent global historian. He focuses on the Indian Ocean, but has an eye on global slaveries. He starts from a micro-historical perspective, which always brings new insights into global history, offering analyses of Cochin in India, caste and slavery, as well as his own source-based category, "enslavable." Outstanding! * Michael Zeuske, Professor of History, Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies, Germany *
Matthias van Rossum -- one of the very best historians of the Dutch overseas empire -- has collected rich and dramatic sources in Testimonies of Enslavement to illuminate the global history of slavery in new and exciting ways. * Marcus Rediker, Distinguished Professor of History, University of Pittsburgh, USA *

Author Bio

Matthias van Rossum is Senior Researcher at the International Institute of Social History, The Netherlands. His main areas of interest are Global Labour History with a focus on maritime labour history, coercion in labour relations and the dynamics of labour conflicts and social relations. Matthias has published extensively on the Dutch maritime history, the history of sailors and maritime labour markets in Asia, the history of globalisation, slavery and the slave trade. Alexander Geelen is a PhD researcher at the International Institute of Social History and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands. His research specialises in the regulation of mobility in the Dutch overseas empire during the 18th century, and the involvement of the VOC and WIC in local practices of forced labour. Bram van den Hout is a Data Information Specialist and historian at the International Institute of Social History, The Netherlands, specialising in violence and slavery in the Dutch East India Company and in creating datasets from historical sources. Merve Tosun is a Data Manager at the International Institute of Social History, The Netherlands, where she coordinates the database project 'Exploring the Slave Trade in Asia'. She is a historian of early modern colonialism and the slave trade.