Legacies of British Slavery in Australia and New Zealand - (Studies in Imperialism) by Zoë Laidlaw & Jane Lydon (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book investigates the legacies of British slavery beyond Britain, focusing upon the colonisation of Australia and New Zealand, and explores why this history has been overlooked.

Book Synopsis

This book investigates the legacies of British slavery beyond Britain, focusing upon the colonisation of Australia and New Zealand, and explores why this history has been overlooked. After August 1833, when the British Parliament abolished slavery in the British Caribbean, Mauritius and the Cape, the former slave-owners were paid compensation for the loss of their 'property'. New research has begun to show that many beneficiaries had ties to other parts of the British Empire, including the settler colonies of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa. Through a range of case studies, contributors to this collection trace the movement of people, goods, capital, and practices from the Caribbean to the new Australasian settler colonies. Chapters consider a range of places, people and themes to reveal the varied ways that slavery continued to shape imperial relationships, economic networks, and racial labour regimes after 1833.

From the Back Cover

This book investigates the legacies of British slavery beyond Britain, focusing upon the colonisation of Australia and New Zealand, and explores why this history has been overlooked.
After August 1833, when the British Parliament abolished slavery in the British Caribbean, Mauritius and the Cape, former slave-owners were paid compensation for the loss of their 'property'. New research has reveals that many beneficiaries had ties to other parts of the British Empire, including the settler colonies of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa. Through a range of case studies, contributors to this volume trace the movement of people, goods, capital and practices from the Caribbean to the new Australasian settler colonies. The book considers a range of places, people and themes to reveal the varied ways that slavery continued to shape imperial relationships, economic networks and racial labour regimes after 1833. It covers the life stories of those travelling from the Caribbean to the new settler colonies, the extensive links between Caribbean slavery and the mid-nineteenth century development of colonial industries such as pastoralism, and Queensland's sugar industry.
For the first time, this collection tracks reinvestment in the new colonies, and experiments with 'free' labour championed by colonisers with strong financial or personal links to Caribbean slavery. It shows that colonisers' connections to Caribbean slavery shaped their approach to First Nations peoples, in seeking to exploit their land, control their labour, and meet anti-colonial resistance with lethal violence.

About the Author

Zoë Laidlaw is Professor of History at the University of Melbourne.
Jane Lydon is Professor of History at the University of Western Australia.