Ebook: Identity in the Shadow of Slavery

‘Identity in the Shadow of Slavery’ addresses the issues relating to the gender, ethnic and cultural factors affecting the ways in which enslaved Africans and their descendants interpreted their lives under slavery and thereby created communities with a shared sense of identity. The book examines how identities were formulated under slavery and the ways in which the struggle to escape slavery and its legacy continued, after abolition, to affect the lives of descendants of slaves. The introductory essay explores an approach to the study of the African diaspora that looks outward from Africa and places the following chapters, written by leading authorities from Europe, North America and South America, in the context of the theoretical literature.

Paul E. Lovejoy is Distinguished Research Professor of History at York University in Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He has written over fifteen books on African economic and social history, slavery and the African diaspora. He is a member of the International Scientific Committee of the UNESCO ‘Slave Route’ Project.