Overview
- Presents the first serious study of the relationship between bondage and climate
- Comprises essays from leading experts on the history of bondage in the Indian Ocean world
- Examines the complex set of environmental, economic, and political conditions which have helped to drive and shape human bondage in the Indian Ocean world
Part of the book series: Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies (IOWS)
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About this book
Monsoon rains, winds, and currents have shaped patterns of production and exchange in the Indian Ocean world (IOW) for centuries. Consequently, as this volume demonstrates, the environment has also played a central role in determining the region’s systems of bondage and human trafficking. Contributors trace intricate links between environmental forces, human suffering, and political conditions, examining how they have driven people into servile labour and shaped the IOW economy. They illuminate the complexities of IOW bondage with case studies, drawn chiefly from the mid-eighteenth century, on Sudan, Cape Colony, Réunion, China, and beyond, where chattel slavery (as seen in the Atlantic world) represented only one extreme of a wide spectrum of systems of unfree labour. The array of factors examined here, including climate change, environmental disaster, disease, and market forces, are central to IOW history—and to modern-day forms of human bondage.
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Keywords
- Indian Ocean Environment
- Slavery and the environment
- Abolition in Indian Ocean
- Enslavement
- History of slave trade
- Indian ocean slave trade
- Tan Emperor Wu Zong
- Swahili Slave Export Trade
- Slave resistance
- Global climate
- Cyclones
- slave transporters
- environmental disaster
- slavery in Africa
- Indian Ocean slave traffickers
- Indian Ocean environmental history
Table of contents (11 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Reviews
“The long-term climate cycles of the rather expansive “Indian Ocean World” covered here, citing an impressive array of technical climate studies, attempts to distinguish debt-bondage from slavery … . World historians of many persuasions will accordingly find useful reminders of the climate component … in which they work and of the essential historicity of slaving.” (Joseph C. Miller,Journal of World History, Vol. 29 (4), December, 2018)
“This is a fascinating and important volume that challenges us to see how environmental conditions, along with systems of rule, helped shape practices of servitude in the Indian Ocean world. Brought together under the expert guidance of Gwyn Campbell, these rich chapters bring to life the specific effects of the relationship between political-economic policies and human struggles with climate, production, and debt.” (Mandana Limbert, Associate Professor of Anthropology, The Graduate Center at CUNY, USA)
Editors and Affiliations
About the editor
Gwyn Campbell is Canada Research Chair and Founding Director of the Indian Ocean World Centre at McGill University, Canada. He is also the editor of the Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies, the founder and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Indian Ocean World Studies, and a recipient of the Humboldt Research Award (2017-2019).
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Bondage and the Environment in the Indian Ocean World
Editors: Gwyn Campbell
Series Title: Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70028-1
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-70027-4Published: 23 January 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-88878-1Published: 04 June 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-70028-1Published: 10 January 2018
Series ISSN: 2730-9703
Series E-ISSN: 2730-9711
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 304
Number of Illustrations: 5 b/w illustrations
Topics: World History, Global and Transnational History, Modern History, Imperialism and Colonialism, Environmental Sociology, African History, Asian History