From Slavery to Colonisation: Land and Labour. Online symposium 29 + 30 November

Jane Lydon Announcement
Subject Fields
Australian and New Zealand History / Studies, British History / Studies, Colonial and Post-Colonial History / Studies, Slavery, World History / Studies

Recent interest in the legacies of British slavery has focused on the movement of people, capital, ideas and practices from the Caribbean to the newer settler colonies of Australasia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa. The costs for Britain of the momentous decision to abolish slavery in the British Caribbean, Mauritius and the Cape Colony by passing the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 ​were offset by the opportunities offered by its new colonies. This online symposium seeks to bring slavery and settler colonisation into a shared analytic frame by exploring the transition from one to the other. We see emancipation in the Caribbean as a transitional moment rather than a turning-point, and seek to identify continuities between these imperial systems. Presenters consider connections focused on land and labour, such as Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s program of ‘systematic colonisation’, company colonisation and investment, reproduction, labour regimes, punishment, and the expropriation of Indigenous land.

Contact Information

Jane Lydon, University of Western Australia

Contact Email
jane.lydon@uwa.edu.au