The Slavery of the British West India Colonies Delineated
As it Exists Both in Law and Practice, and Compared with the Slavery of Other Countries, Antient and Modern

A key abolitionist text, exposing the cruelty of colonial slave laws, by one of the nineteenth century's most brilliant lawyers.

James Stephen (Author)

9781108020824, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 September 2010

564 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 3.5 cm, 0.99 kg

The lawyer and leading abolitionist James Stephen (1758–1832) published Volume 1 of The Slavery of the British West India Colonies Delineated in 1824. The volume is an exposure of the cruel and oppressive legal system of slavery in the British West Indies. The work explores the origin of nineteenth-century colonial slave laws, the legal status of individual slaves, the legal relations between slaves and their masters, and the policing and governance of slave populations. In each chapter Stephen exposes the cruelty and inhumanity behind the West Indian slave laws. Stephen had been the legal mastermind of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which abolished the slave trade in the British Empire but not slavery itself. This important work was influential in directing public opinion against slavery and helped lead towards the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act. It is a key text in the progression of the nineteenth-century abolitionist movement.

Preface
Preliminary chapter
Book I. Of the Slavery of our Colonies Considered as a Legal Institution: 1. Of the origin and authority of the colonial slave laws in general
2. Of the persons who are subject to slavery in our colonies
3. Of the legal nature and incidents of this condition, as they respect and constitute the relation between the slave and his master
4. Of the legal nature and incidents of colonial slavery, as they respect its relations to persons of free condition in general, the master and his delegates excepted
5. Of the legal nature and incidents of West India slavery, in its relations to the police and civil government of the country
6. Of this state of slavery in respect of its commencement and dissolution
Appendices.

Subject Areas: Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH]