Sojourners, Sultans, and Slaves: America and the Indian Ocean in the Age of Abolition and Empire

378 Pages·2023·55.49 MB·English

by  Gunja SenGupta, Awam Amkpa

Sojourners, Sultans, and Slaves
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Ottoman Empire CHINA
Tehran
Baghdad TIBET
Lahore
Basra PERSIA
Cairo Bushire Delhi NEPAL
EGYPT Medina Gulf Karachi Lucknow
Nile Muscat Kutch INDIA Calcutta
Red SeaJedMdeacAhcRaABIA Hadhramaut KathiawarBSoumrHabytdayerabad Bay of Bengal Rangoon
Al Mukalla Arabian Goa Bangkok
Mocha Aden Socotra Sea Madras
ETHIOPIA
Berbera Ceylon
Harar
Penang
Mogadishu
Padang
Lamu
Lake Mombasa Seychelles
Tanganyika ZPaenmzbibaar
Lake Kilwa
Nyasa YaoMakondeComoros
Mozambique
Zambesi Makua Marianah
Quilimane Madagascar Fatima
Yacoob
Mozambique Mauritius
Other enslaved protagonists
Channel Réunion
Transoceanic, to Americas
Delgoa Bay
Durban
Cape of Good
Hope
Port Elizabeth
map 1. Western Indian Ocean world passages: Marianah, Fatima, Yacoob.
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Kabul
KASHMIR
AFGHANISTAN
Direct British rule
Lahore Independent/tributary/
other imperial realms
a
g
n
Delhi a
G NEPAL
CHISTAN Indus RAJPJUoTdAhNpAur Jaipur AgJarmauna AWALDuHcknowGorakhpur CooBcHh UBTeAhNar
BALU SINDH Ajmer ChambGawlalior KalpKianpur BenaresPatna Assam
BUNDELKHAND
Dacca
BENGAL
Kutch
KATHIAWAR Baroda Narmada Calcutta
Porbandar
Broach
Surat
Cuttack
Diu BERAR
Daman
Aurangabad
Bombay Godayari
Poona Bay of Bengal
Hyderabad
Arabian Sea Goa
MYSORE
Madras
Mysore
TRAVANCORE
CEYLON
Indian Ocean
map 2. South Asia, 1837, showing some places associated with “free” cotton experiments and
IOW slave trades (adapted from Imperial Gazetteer Atlas of India).
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Ngazidja (Grand Comore)
Moroni
Where “Patsy” estate was located
Mutsamudu
Mwali
Ndzwani
(Moheli)
(Anjouan)
Mozambique Channel
Mayotte
map 3. Comoros: an American slaveholder’s island home.
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Sojourners, Sultans,
and Slaves
America and the Indian Ocean in
the Age of Abolition and Empire
Gunja SenGupta and
Awam Amkpa
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
SenGupta_Sojourners Sultans and Slaves.indd 5 27/10/22 2:43 PM
The publisher and the University of California Press Foundation
gratefully acknowledge the generous support of the Peter
Booth Wiley Endowment Fund in History.
University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2023 by Gunja SenGupta and Awam Amkpa
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: SenGupta, Gunja, author. | Amkpa, Awam, 1959- author.
Title: Sojourners, Sultans, and Slaves: America and the Indian Ocean in
the age of abolition and empire / Gunja SenGupta and Awam Amkpa.
Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2022] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2022020000 (print) | lccn 2022020001 (ebook) |
isbn 9780520389137 (cloth) | isbn 9780520389151 (ebook)
Subjects: lcsh: Slavery—America—19th century. | Slavery—Indian
Ocean—19th century. | Slave trade—America—19th century. | Slave
trade—Indian Ocean—19th century. | Antislavery movements—
America—19th century. | Antislavery movements—Indian Ocean—
19th century.
Classification: lcc ht1048 .s46 2022 (print) | lcc ht1048 (ebook) |
ddc 306.3/62097—dc23/eng/20220606
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022020000
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022020001
isbn 978-0-520-38913-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn 978-0-520-38915-1 (ebook)
Manufactured in the United States of America
32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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For Ruku and Ratan SenGupta
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contents
List of Illustrations xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
part one. between empires: a new way of talking
about slavery, east and west 25
1. Empire, Religious Law, and Slavery by “Free Will” 27
2. Human Rights from Calcutta through London to Boston 52
part two. antislavery empire versus republic of
slaveholders? 85
3. Reverberations: American Overseers, Slavery, and “Free”
Cotton Experiments in India 87
4. The Slave Mistress and the Courtesan: Poverty, Patriarchy,
and “Proslavery Maternalism” 120
part three. how migrations made meaning: imperial
abolition, slave trading, and subaltern subjects 149
5. “Domestic” Slavery and Colonial Belonging 151
6. Rulers, Rebels, and Refugees in Transnational Transit 172
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