This comparative study examines the emancipation process in the
British Caribbean, particularly Jamaica, during the 1830s and in
the United States, particularly South Carolina, during the 1860s.
Analyzing the intellectual and ideological foundations of
postslavery Anglo-America, Demetrius Eudell explores how former
slaves, former slaveholders, and their societies' central
governments understood and discussed slavery, emancipation, and the
transition between the two.
Eudell investigates the public policies--which addressed issues of
labor control, access to land, and the general social behaviors of
former slaves--used to execute emancipation. In both regions,
government-appointed officials (special magistrates in Jamaica and
agents of the Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina) were crucial in
implementing these policies. While many former slaves were fighting
for the right to be paid for their labor and to own land, many
officials came to view their role as part of a new civilizing
mission whose goal was to eradicate the psychic damage supposedly
caused by slavery.
Eudell concludes by examining the 1865 Morant Bay rebellion in
Jamaica and the retreat from Reconstruction in South Carolina, part
of the larger movement of Redemption that occurred in 1877. Both of
these occurrences represented the incomplete victory of
emancipation, Eudell argues, and should provoke scholarly questions
regarding the persistent thesis of U.S. exceptionalism.
