The Nature of Slavery: Environment and Plantation Labor in the Anglo-Atlantic World
Katherine Johnston
Oxford University Press
In response to abolitionist efforts to end the transatlantic slave trade in the late 18th century, plantation owners in the Caribbean, Britain, and the American South insisted that only Africans and their descendants could labor in warm climates. Black bodies, they argued, were especially suited for cultivating crops in the heat, while white bodies were incapable of such work. By examining personal correspondence regarding bodily health and the environment in the context of plantation labor in the Anglo-Atlantic world, this book argues that defenders of slavery made these claims about people’s ability to labor despite their experiences, not because of them.