American Historical Association

131st Annual Meeting (January 5-8, 2017)

January 05 - 08, 2017

Dale Tomich’s 2009 article in Review developed an interpretation of a “second slavery” that expanded in the Atlantic, especially in Cuba, Brazil, and the United States, in the years after British abolition of slave trade and emancipation of slaves. He argued that this second slavery was tightly linked to Atlantic industrialization. This panel reviews further thoughts on that interpretation, notably by Tomich himself, but extends to discussion to consideration of contemporary nineteenth-century expansion of slavery in Africa (both coast and interior, as well as eastern and western portions of the continent) and in all the territories bordering the Indian Ocean as well as the islands and seas. Four different topics and perspectives bring together what amounts to a world-historical review of this nineteenth-century issue in labor and social oppression. One focuses on the Atlantic; one links the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic, and the East African mainland; one centers on the monarchies of Burma and Thailand in Southeast Asian context; and one provides a long-term and global context. Overall, the panel provides an opportunity to review the latest research on slavery and develop a balance and links of global and regional analyses of the place of slave labor in the construction of the modern world.