Overview

This volume offers a pioneering study of slavery in the Italian states. Documenting previously unstudied cases of slavery in six Italian cities—Naples, Caserta, Rome, Palermo, Livorno and Genoa—Giulia Bonazza investigates why slavery survived into the middle of the nineteenth century, even as the abolitionist debate raged internationally and most states had abolished it. She contextualizes these cases of residual slavery from 1750–1850, focusing on two juridical and political watersheds: after the Napoleonic period, when the Italian states (with the exception of the Papal States) adopted constitutions outlawing slavery; and after the Congress of Vienna, when diplomatic relations between the Italian states, France and Great Britain intensified and slavery was condemned in terms that covered only the Atlantic slave trade. By excavating the lives of men and women who remained in slavery after abolition, this book sheds new light on the broader Mediterranean and transatlantic dimensions ofslavery in the Italian states.

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9783030013486

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Reviews

“The book is empirically ground-breaking, and reveals themes that have not attracted sufficient attention in a field dominated by excessive focus on the Atlantic world. ... This is extremely interesting from a comparative perspective, as it expands our understanding of the relation between imperialism and abolitionism. ... The book also unearths for its readers a secondary literature accessible only in Italian, and therefore scarcely integrated in international debates. For all these reasons, Bonazza is to be highly commended.” (Journal of Global Slavery, Vol. 5 (3), October, 2020) “Giulia Bonazza’s book on abolitionism in pre-unification Italy is, from many points of view, an innovative Study. … Bonazza’s study continues, from the point of view of the chronological period analyzed … . Her book offers …  a broader and more general reflection on that “grey area” between the Napoleonic campaign in Italy and national unification … .” (Valeria Deplano, H-Net Reviews, h-net.org, March, 2023) “This work constitutes a major contribution to global slavery studies, primarily because it sheds light on an understudied topic in the English language historiography: slavery and abolitionism in pre-unification Italy. The book is empirically ground-breaking, and reveals themes that have not attracted sufficient attention in a field dominated by excessive focus on the Atlantic world. … For all these reasons, Bonazza is to be highly commended.” (Journal of Global Slavery, Vol. 5 (3), October, 2020)

Giulia Bonazza's book on abolitionism in pre-unification Italy is, from many points of view, an innovative Study. ... Bonazza's study continues, from the point of view of the chronological period analyzed ... . Her book offers ... a broader and more general reflection on that grey area between the Napoleonic campaign in Italy and national unification ... . (Valeria Deplano, H-Net Reviews, h-net.org, March, 2023)

Author Information

Giulia Bonazza is a fellow at the German Historical Institute in Rome, Italy, and former Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute.

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