Capitalism and Slavery

Notes:

Seminal work on the history of the slave trade and slavery in the West Indies. Argues - against the accepted consensus at the time - that Britain's changing attitude to the slave trade was driven by the country's changing economic interests and not necessarily by public pressure based on humanitarianism. 'It is strictly an economic study of the role of negro slavery and the slave trade in providing the capital which financed the industrial revolution in England and of mature industrial capitalism in destroying the slave trade. It is therefore first a study in English economic history and second in West Indian and negro history. It is not a study in the institution of slavery but of the contribution of slavery to the development of British capitalism'. Chapters include: 'Origin of negro slavery'; 'Development of the negro slave trade'; 'British commerce and the triangular trade'; 'The West Indian interest'; 'British industry and the triangular trade'; 'The American Revolution '; 'Development of British capitalism, 1783-1833'; 'The new industrial order'; 'British capitalism and the West Indies'; 'The 'commercial past of the nation' and slavery'; 'The 'saints' and slavery'; 'The slaves and slavery'