Table of Contents

List of Tables ix

List of Figures xi

Foreword David Brion Davis xiii

Preface to the Second Edition xxi

Acknowledgments xxxi

1 The Decline Theory of Abolition 3

The Emergence of the Decline Theory

The Problem of Measuring Slavery

The Destruction Process

2 The 1770s as the Pivot of British Slavery 15

The Value of the West Indies

The Slave Trade

The Continental Colonies

3 The Protected Economy Before the French Slave Revolution 38

The British Caribbean in 1790

The Imperial Factor

French Sugar: "The Most Amazing Phenomenon"

4 The Unprotected Economy Before the French Slave Revolution 55

Slave Cotton and "Laissez-faire" Abolitionism

Slave Trading and "Mercantilist" Abolitionism

Prospects in 1790

5 The Growth of Slavery in the Era of British Supremacy 65

The Trade Network

The Slave Trade-Arrested Growth

Staple Production During the Caribbean Revolutions

6 The New Frontier and Abolition 92

The Ever-Receding Threshold of Saturation

Demerara and Abolition

Trinidad and Abolition

St. Vincent and Abolition

7 Economic Conjuncture and Abolition Bills, 1791-1806 113

1791-1792

1797-1802

1806

8 The Market Mechanism and Abolition 125

Overproduction

Overproduction and Abolition in 1807

The Laws of the Market and the Law of Abolition

9 Abolition and the Decline of British Slavery, 1808-1814 142

Decline in Disguise, 1808-1814

The Crossroads: 1814

10 Beyond Economic Interest 162

The Age of Slavery

Seeds of Destruction

Abolition and Evolving Economic Policy

The Elusive Enemies of Slavery

Beyond Elites

List of Abbreviations 188

Appendix I Chronology 189

Appendix II Estimating the Sugar, Coffee, and Slave Trades 193

Appendix III The Relative Strength of Suggested Motives in the Votes of 1806-1807 214

Notes 225

Bibliography 261

Index 273