Slavocracy

A slavocracy,[1] also known as a plantocracy, is a ruling class, political order or government composed of (or dominated by) slave owners and plantation owners.

A number of early European colonies in the New World were largely plantocracies, usually consisting of a small European settler population relying on a predominantly West African chattel slave population (as well as smaller numbers of indentured servants, both European and non-European in origin), and later, freed Black and poor white sharecroppers for labor. These plantocracies proved to be a decisive force in the anti-abolitionist movement.

One prominent organization largely representing (and collectively funded by) a number of plantocracies was the "West India Interest", which lobbied in Parliament against the abolition of slavery. It is credited (or conversely, discredited) in constituting a significant impetus in delaying the abolition of the slave trade from taking place in the 1790s to being implemented in 1806-1808; and likewise, with respect to prospects of emancipation being proclaimed in the 1820s (instead, a policy known as "Amelioration" was formally adopted throughout 1823-1833), to it being implemented in 1834-1838.

See also

References

  1. Bicheno, Hugh (2003). Rebels and Redcoats: The American Revolutionary War. London: Harper Collins. pp. assim. ISBN 0-00-715625-1.

Sources

  • B.W. Higman. "The West India Interest in Parliament," Historical Studies (1967), 13: pp. 1-19.
  • See the historical journal: Plantation Society in the Americas for a host of pertinent articles.
  • Steel, Mark James (PhD Dissertation). Power, Prejudice and Profit: the World View of the Jamaican Slaveowning Elite, 1788-1834, (University of Liverpool Press, Liverpool 1988).
  • Luster, Robert Edward (PhD Dissertation). The Amelioration of the Slaves in the British Empire, 1790-1833 (New York University Press, 1998).
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