Author Meets Critics: "Ruling Emancipated Slaves and Indigenous Subjects"

Session Submission Type: Author meet critics

Session Description

I am submitting this proposal to organize an author-meets-critics roundtable discussion of my forthcoming book, Ruling Emancipated Slaves and Indigenous Subjects: The Divergent Developmental Legacies of Forced Settlement and Colonial Occupation in the Global South (Oxford University Press: April 2023). This book examines why most forced settlement colonies, where European colonists established agricultural plantations with enslaved and imported African labor, now outperform most continental African states on key indicators of educational attainment, human well-being and postcolonial democratization. I argue that forced settlement colonies were able to promote comparatively favorable development outcomes because of liberal institutional reforms that expanded the legal rights and political agency of emancipated Afro-descendants following the abolition of slavery in the New World. By contrast, continental African colonial states developed repressive ‘native legal codes’ that restricted the legal rights and political agency of indigenous black populations that were colonized after the abolition of slavery in the New World. These arguments are supported by statistical evidence from more than 90 developing countries that emerged from colonial rule after World War Two, and comparative-historical evidence from the British, French, and Portuguese colonial empires. The case studies in this book contrast the developmental legacies of British forced settlement and colonial occupation in Jamaica vs. Sierra Leone, Portuguese forced settlement and colonial occupation in Cape Verde vs. Guinea-Bissau, and nine abbreviated case studies from the French colonial empire (including Haiti, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Algeria, Senegal, Gabon, and Madagascar). To the best of my knowledge, this is the first book length project to systematically compare the distinctive patterns of colonialism, state-building and postcolonial development of forced settlement colonies with continental African states that were colonized following the abolition of slavery in the New World.

This book was awarded the International Studies Association's Distinguished Book Prize in Ethnicity, Migration, and Nationalism for 2024. More information on the book, including several pre-publication reviews, can be obtained from the publishers’ website, https://global.oup.com/academic/product/ruling-emancipated-slaves-and-indigenous-subjects-9780197673034?cc=us&lang=en&

The author-meets-critics panel discussion will include the author and four panel discussants.
(i) David Laitin, Stanford University
(ii) Jack Paine, Emory University
(iii) Marcus Aaron Johnson, University of Maryland
(iv) Denise Brown, University of Missouri.

Sub Unit

• Division 7: Politics and History

Chair

• Kunle Owolabi Villanova University

Presenters

• Denise Marsha Brown University of Missouri

• David D. Laitin Stanford University

• Jack Paine Emory University

• Marcus Johnson UMD College Park