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Debt and Slavery in the Mediterranean and Atlantic Worlds . Edited by Campbell Gwyn and Stanziani Alessandro . London : Pickering & Chatto . 2013. $99.00, hardcover.
Reviews of Books
Africa
This book delivers exactly what the title promises--ten chapters that discuss debt, slavery, and debt slavery throughout the Mediterranean and Atlantic, ranging from classical Rome to twentieth-century Egypt.
The editors' introductory chapter sets up the aims of the book and highlights themes of the other chapters. The editors are interested in the "interplay between economy, society and institutions of slavery." Two particular themes stand out: the response of slavery to economic, political, and moral pressures, and the dependence of types of debt and labor on the structure of power. This chapter also provides a chronological overview of slavery that covers ancient Greece and Rome, the transition to medieval slavery, debt bondage in early modern Europe, debt slavery in Islam and precolonial Africa, the slave trade, indentured labor in the Americas, and abolition.
Kleijwegt's chapter on early Roman slavery makes a narrow contribution, noting difficulties with Finley's argument that...