Romantic Colonization and British Anti-Slavery [Hardcover]

Deirdre Coleman shows how the growing popularity of the anti-slavery movement gave a utopian cast to the debate about colonization.The loss of Britain's transatlantic empire precipitated much debate about the nature of colonization in the period 1770-1800. The growing popularity of the anti-slavery movement, combined with the changing impact of colonialism and immigration in England, prompted many utopian and Romantic responses to colonization. Deirdre Coleman examines Romantic initiatives to find ways of founding an empire without slaves, a new world which could also encompass revolutionary sexual, racial, and labour arrangements.The loss of Britain's transatlantic empire precipitated much debate about the nature of colonization in the period 1770-1800. The growing popularity of the anti-slavery movement, combined with the changing impact of colonialism and immigration in England, prompted many utopian and Romantic responses to colonization. Deirdre Coleman examines Romantic initiatives to find ways of founding an empire without slaves, a new world which could also encompass revolutionary sexual, racial, and labour arrangements.Deirdre Coleman examines Romantic initiatives to establish an empire without slaves, one that would also encompass revolutionary sexual, racial, and labor changes. The loss of Britain's transatlantic empire precipitated much debate about the nature of colonization from 1770 to 1800. Combined with the changing impact of colonialism and immigration in England, the growing popularity of the anti-slavery movement prompted many utopian and Romantic responses to colonization.List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; Introduction: the Cowpastures; 1. Henry Smeathman, imperial flycatcher and aeronaut; 2. The 'microscope of enthusiasm': Swedenborgian ideas about Africa; 3. Rallying under the flag of Empire: the Nova Scotians in Sierra Leone; 4. 'New Albion': the camp at Port Jackson; 5. Etiquettes of colonisation and dispossession; Epilogue; Notes; ló·