The Blackest Thing in Slavery Was Not the Black Man

The Blackest Thing in Slavery Was Not the Black Man: The Last Testament of Eric Williams represents the final instalment of research and analysis by one of the Caribbean’s foremost historians. In this volume, Eric Williams reflects on the institution of slavery from the ancient period in Europe down to New World African slavery and considers, too, other forms of bondage that followed slavery, including of Japanese, Chinese, Indians and Pacific peoples in many locations worldwide. Williams points ways in which this bondage led to European and American prosperity and the manner in which bonded peoples created their own spaces. This they did through the preservation and revival of the transported culture to the new locations.

The Blackest Thing in Slavery makes a significant contribution in that it moves beyond African slavery. It continues the narrative after abolition by showing how the capitalist impulse enabled Europe and the United States to devise other (non-slavery) ways of further exploiting of non-African people in developing countries. These nations fought this further exploitation in banding together to create the south-to-south nonaligned movement, which gave mutual assistance in a number of areas. Most other works tend to separate these issues or deal with them on a regional basis. Eric Williams offers a comprehensive view, tying together many themes in a vast compendium.