Slavery & Abolition in Early Republican Peru (Latin American Silhouettes)

by Peter Blanchard

Overview

In this work, Professor Blanchard examines why slavery managed to survive for more than three decades after Peru declared its independence despite anti-slavery legislation passed by the liberators at that time. The book focuses on the economics of Peruvian slavery, slave life and the abolition movement. Slavery and Abolition aims to offer an alternative example of a slavery system to the more familiar examples of the US, Brazil and Cuba.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780842024006
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	08/01/1992
Series:	Latin American Silhouettes
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.46(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.80(d)

Editorial Reviews

Blanchard (history, Univ. of Toronto) focuses on the period after Peru gained its independence from Spain in 1821 and before it abolished slavery in 1855. The perceived need for slaves to work in the unhealthy but profitable lowland farms, cultural differences between the landowners and the African slaves, and some desire among the Creole population for visible signs of status prolonged slavery in Peru, even though many voices called for emancipation at the time of the Bolivar revolution. Although his scope is limited, Blanchard synthesizes a number of sources and opinions about South American slavery. Heavily footnoted, difficult to understand without knowing Spanish, but very readable, this will be of use primarily to Peruvian history collections and slavery specialists. McGlynn (anthropology, Univ. of Pittsburgh, Greensburg) and Drescher (history, Univ. of Pittsburgh) have collected 11 essays on the situation of slaves after emancipation that elaborate on a 1988 conference at the University of Pittsburgh. The essays cover the Caribbean and North and South American experiences of slaves from the St. Dominque uprising of 1791 well into Reconstruction. So scholarly in tone as to be almost unreadable, this may still be of interest to comprehensive subject collections in academic libraries.-- Edwin B. Burgess, U.S. Army TRALINET Ctr., Fort Monroe, Va.

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