The Anti-Slavery Project: From the Slave Trade to Human Trafficking

4. The Limits of Legal Abolition

C h a p t e r 4 The Limits of Legal Abolition The legal abolition of slavery has often been presented as a historical endpoint , fostering a misleading impression that the passage of anti-slavery legislation marked a decisive break with the past. This sharp periodization is reflected in a widespread tendency to organize popular histories of anti-slavery around a series of transformative dates—such as 1833 in Britain or 1888 in Brazil—which are celebrated as key moments when slavery ostensibly ceased to be an ongoing concern in specific jurisdictions. These complacent narratives have helped to conceal a variety of complex and enduring issues. Instead of signaling a conclusive end to the problems at hand, the legal abolition of slavery usually marked (at best) a qualified reconfiguration of entrenched socioeconomic cleavages, with former slave owners and their sympathizers seeking to defend their earlier prerogatives and investments, and slaves and ex-slaves seeking to carve out new options and opportunities in the face of continued opposition. These protracted contests over the boundaries of freedom and coercion were further complicated by various forms of government intervention, which saw public officials attempt to reconcile their anti-slavery obligations with a variety of economic interests and ideological agendas. From this vantage point, legal abolition can be best understood as a qualified first step, rather than a historical endpoint. This chapter explores some of the principal dynamics that have shaped global responses to the legal abolition of slavery. Four central themes will be highlighted: (1) the boundaries of freedom; (2) the economics of exploitation ; (3) negotiation and contestation; and (4) the search for “suitable” replacements . The first theme is concerned with the boundaries of freedom in 114 Chapter 4 post-abolition societies, and the continuing role of coercion and constraint in shaping various options and opportunities. The second theme is concerned with the underlying economic calculations that informed the actions and outlooks of both policymakers and former slave owners. Of particular importance here is a widespread lack of faith in “free labor.” The third theme to be considered is the indispensible contribution of slaves and ex-slaves in contesting the established terms of both master-slave and slave-society relations. This offers a necessary corrective to a lingering tendency to imagine slaves as passive beneficiaries of humanitarian campaigners and great emancipators. As we shall see, many of the substantive advances associated with legal abolition were not passively received from above, but were instead bravely secured from below. With the fourth and final theme, I reflect on global efforts to identify suitable replacements for roles previously occupied by slaves. The main focus of this inquiry is the global expansion of indentured migration schemes following legal abolition. Here, as elsewhere, we encounter difficulties firmly distinguishing between slave and non-slave. By exploring each of these themes, the chapter gradually develops an overall picture of the historical limitations of legal abolition. This picture will in turn provide a foundation for the chapter that follows, where I argue that an evolving appreciation of these limitations has been the primary catalyst behind the gradual emergence of the category of contemporary forms of slavery. The Boundaries of Freedom and Coercion In order to evaluate post-abolition practices, we must first unpack the meaning of freedom. The familiar juxtaposition between slavery and freedom is particularly unhelpful here, because it establishes a binary opposition between two sharply demarcated categories. Taken to its logical conclusion, this polarized (and often highly ideological) formula tacitly suggests that transition from one category to the other involved a fundamental break with the earlier status quo. This can end up concealing underlying continuities between pre- and post-abolition practices. When it comes to the practical dimensions of the “freedom” associated with legal abolition, it is necessary to take into account a number of countervailing factors. In thinking about these issues, it is important to emphasize that “Legislation before and after abolition did not compensate the slaves . . . for their past exploitation, economic or otherwise.”1 This meant that most former slaves had relatively few The Limits of Legal Abolition 115 resources (i.e., land, money, or social capital) from which to fashion new lives in the aftermath of legal abolition.2 It is clear, moreover, that the experience of long-term enslavement could have enduring psychological and sociological consequences, creating complex patterns of personal deference and selfsubordination that could further constrain post-abolition activities. This...