The Cambridge World History of Slavery, Volume 3: AD 1420-AD 1804 by David Eltis and Stanley L. Engerman (editors)

(Cambridge University Press), 2011

762pp., £110 hard, ISBN 978-0-521-84068-2

This is the second of the four volume in The Cambridge World History of Slavery to be published and will attract a considerable audience among teachers for whom slavery and its abolition is fast becoming a central feature of the school curriculum.  It is to be hoped that this excellent volume will extend their understanding of slavery beyond the triangular trade, appalling conditions and William Wilberforce.  In fact, abolition plays a very small part and we will have to wait for volume 4 for details on this.  This volume is a global history of slavery in its various manifestations as coerced labour between the opening up of the Atlantic world and the formal creation of the new nation of Haiti. The authors, well-known authorities in their respective fields, place slavery in the foreground of the collection but also examine other types of coerced labour.  The first half of the book, divided into five parts, considers slavery geographically in Africa, Asia and the Americas.  The latter sections examine the issue of slavery thematically including gender, demography, law and the economic significance of coerced labour and slave resistance.  It is the material on the Americas that provide an excellent summary of current thinking on the issue which will grab the attention of teachers.  Each chapter has a useful reading list.  It is to be hoped that a cheaper version of this volume will quickly become available so that teachers can afford their own copies.