This book tells the untold story of the fight to defend slavery in the British Empire. Drawing on a wide range of sources, from art, poetry, and literature, to propaganda, scientific studies, and parliamentary papers, Proslavery Britain explores the many ways in which slavery's defenders helped shape the processes of abolition and emancipation. It finds that proslavery arguments and rhetoric were carefully crafted to justify slavery, defend the colonies, and attack the abolition movement at the height of the slavery debates.
"The book consists of three parts. The introduction and opening chapter present proslavery positions from economic, strategic, historicist, legalistic, paternalistic, moral, and religious points of view. ... there is much here to interest scholars of slavery, abolition, and emancipation, as well as anyone interested in the history of political lobbying, and the book offers a very useful starting point for future studies of British proslavery." (Brycchan Carey, American Historical Review, Vol. 122 (2), April 2017)