Publisher's Synopsis
The proliferation of literature on the various forms of human exploitation before the nineteenth century provides the raison dÆetre for this seminal collection of essays. The ideological foundations upon which systems of coerced labour were constructed are discussed, and then placed into context by examinations of unfree labour in Europe and the colonies. Attention is also paid to the ways in which the oppressed created their cultural space, and challenged those who held them in servitude.
