Representations of Slavery and Its Legacies

Webster, J; Cossin, Z; Dunnavant, J; Joshel, S

doi:10.1093/9780197551295.003.0013

Representations of Slavery and Its Legacies

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Abstract

Across the globe today, hundreds of archaeologists are engaged in the study of enslavement and its contemporary legacies, but we tend to work in discrete subdisciplinary silos, centred on Ottoman slavery, North American slavery, Roman slavery, and so on. This Oxford handbook is an experiment with another way of working; its contributors have crossed the boundaries that define but can also constrain research and worked collaboratively to explore what a comparative approach to enslavement at different times and in different places might offer the discipline. Seventy-six scholars of enslavement in Europe, Africa, the Americas, the Indian Ocean, and Australia, and in contexts from prehistory to the very recent past have contributed their expertise to one or more of this book’s seventeen thematic chapters. They have crafted innovative explorations of topics including racialisation; the bioarchaeology of enslavement; the sourcing and making of slaves; agricultural estates and plantations; domestic slavery; urban and public slavery; images of enslaved persons and their labour; artefacts made by those living in slavery; slavery and Christianity; defying slavery; burial practices; manumission and emancipation; experiences of slavery; and unfree labour from the age of abolition to the present day. This innovative, wide-ranging, and dialogic book casts fascinating new light on both the experiences of enslaved people and their descendants, and on the archaeological analysis of slavery and its outcomes.