Shaping the New World: African Slavery in the Americas, 1500-1888

by Eric Nellis

Overview

Between 1500 and the middle of the nineteenth century, some 12.5 million slaves were sent as bonded labour from Africa to the European settlements in the Americas. Shaping the New World introduces students to the origins, growth, and consolidation of African slavery in the Americas and race-based slavery's impact on the economic, social, and cultural development of the New World.

While the book explores the idea of the African slave as a tool in the formation of new American societies, it also acknowledges the culture, humanity, and importance of the slave as a person and highlights the role of women in slave societies.

Serving as the third book in the UTP/CHA International Themes and Issues Series, Shaping the New World introduces readers to the topic of African slavery in the New World from a comparative perspective, specifically focusing on the English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch slave systems.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442605558
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	07/15/2013
Series:	International Themes and Issues , #3
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Eric Nellis is an Emeritus Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of British Columbia.

Table of Contents

Preface



A Note on Usage



1. The Setting for New World Slavery

2. Slavery and the Shaping of Colonial Latin America, 1500-1800

3. The Making of the Black Caribbean, 1650-1800

4. Slavery in Prerevolutionary North America: The Making of the "South"

5. The Atlantic Slave Trade: 1500-1850

6. Women, Children, and Family

7. The Apogee: Revolutions, Abolitionism, and Persistence

8. The Aftermath



Chronology



Select Bibliography



Index

What People are Saying About This

Craig Koslofsky

Shaping the New World is excellent—accurate, clear, and concise.

Justin Roberts

This highly readable overview of slavery in the Americas has an admirably ambitious scope. It synthesizes a vast array of recent research on the subject while still incorporating important older works of scholarship. Nellis offers us a broad comparative framework that is sensitive to the varieties of slavery and slave experiences throughout the Americas. It may be the best overview available for an introduction to the subject. With its vast scope, its extensive and up-to-date bibliography, several important comparative statistical tables and some helpful maps, Nellis's book will be both an ideal text for undergraduates and a helpful reference tool for more advanced scholars.

From the Publisher

While the salient tendency in the expansive field of slavery is focusing on local and micro histories, it is crucial not to lose sight of the big picture and of the comparative perspective. Eric Nellis has produced a remarkable synthesis of the scholarship about African slavery in the Americas from 1500 to 1888. As its title indicates, the book has also the merit of placing the experience of slavery at the heart of the formation of emerging societies in the New World. This concise, elegant, and highly informative work is an excellent guide to the subject and to the scholarship.

This highly readable overview of slavery in the Americas has an admirably ambitious scope. It synthesizes a vast array of recent research on the subject while still incorporating important older works of scholarship. Nellis offers us a broad comparative framework that is sensitive to the varieties of slavery and slave experiences throughout the Americas. It may be the best overview available for an introduction to the subject. With its vast scope, its extensive and up-to-date bibliography, several important comparative statistical tables and some helpful maps, Nellis's book will be both an ideal text for undergraduates and a helpful reference tool for more advanced scholars.

Shaping the New World is excellent—accurate, clear, and concise.

Lotfi Ben Rejeb

While the salient tendency in the expansive field of slavery is focusing on local and micro histories, it is crucial not to lose sight of the big picture and of the comparative perspective. Eric Nellis has produced a remarkable synthesis of the scholarship about African slavery in the Americas from 1500 to 1888. As its title indicates, the book has also the merit of placing the experience of slavery at the heart of the formation of emerging societies in the New World. This concise, elegant, and highly informative work is an excellent guide to the subject and to the scholarship.

Editorial Reviews

This highly readable overview of slavery in the Americas has an admirably ambitious scope. It synthesizes a vast array of recent research on the subject while still incorporating important older works of scholarship. Nellis offers us a broad comparative framework that is sensitive to the varieties of slavery and slave experiences throughout the Americas. It may be the best overview available for an introduction to the subject. With its vast scope, its extensive and up-to-date bibliography, several important comparative statistical tables and some helpful maps, Nellis's book will be both an ideal text for undergraduates and a helpful reference tool for more advanced scholars.—Justin Roberts, Dalhousie University
Shaping the New World is excellent—accurate, clear, and concise.—Craig Koslofsky, University of Illinois
While the salient tendency in the expansive field of slavery is focusing on local and micro histories, it is crucial not to lose sight of the big picture and of the comparative perspective. Eric Nellis has produced a remarkable synthesis of the scholarship about African slavery in the Americas from 1500 to 1888. As its title indicates, the book has also the merit of placing the experience of slavery at the heart of the formation of emerging societies in the New World. This concise, elegant, and highly informative work is an excellent guide to the subject and to the scholarship.—Lotfi Ben Rejeb, University of Ottawa

From the Publisher

Nellis (history, emeritus, Univ. of British Columbia; An Empire of Regions: A Brief History of Colonial British America) provides a well-crafted introduction to the origins, growth, and consolidation of African slavery in the Americas, emphasizing the wide-ranging impact that distinctive race-based slavery had on social, economic, and cultural developments. Until about 1850, more Africans entered the Americas than did Europeans. With a chronology, seven chapters, and a conclusion that cover the slave trade from its start by the Portuguese in the early 1400s until Brazil finally abolished slavery in 1888, this volume traces the flow of the approximately 12.5 million Africans enslaved. Nellis's comparative approach emphasizes differences and similarities in cultural, demographic, political, and social developments in slave societies—and societies holding slaves—in South America, North America, and the Caribbean. VERDICT Nellis's work is an up-to-date, trenchant, readable primer recommended for general readers and students from the advanced high school level up.—Thomas J. Davis, Arizona State Univ., Tempe

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