Description
Book SynopsisThe author analyzes punishment as a way to explore the dynamic of state formation in a colonial society making the transition from slavery to freedom.
Trade Review“
No Bond but the Law is a model of research procedure and historical writing.”—Sidney Mintz, author of
Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History“
No Bond but the Law is one of the most interesting and intellectually ambitious works of scholarship to be published in the field of slave and emancipation studies in recent years. Diana Paton has written a book that takes several important conceptual matters and historiographies—emancipation, punishment, gender, and state formation—and puts them together in a remarkably compelling and original way.”—Steven Hahn, author of
A Nation under Our Feet: Black Political Struggles in the Rural South from Slavery to the Great MigrationTable of ContentsIllustrations xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
Prison and Plantation 19
Planters, Magistrates, and Apprentices 53
The Treadmill and the Whip 83
Penality and Politics in a “Free” Society 121
Justice and the Jamaican People 156
Conclusion 191
Notes 201
Bibliography 253
Index 281
