Colonial Encounters and Slavery in Early Modern Asia

This volume traces how colonial powers from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century built, adapted, and expanded systems of slave trading and coerced labour across different regions of the globe. Bringing together diverse geographical perspectives and source materials, the contributors investigate how European practices of enslavement—shaped above all by experiences in the Atlantic world—were transferred to, or reshaped by, societies in the Indian Ocean and Asia. In examining the management of slaving routes and labour regimes, the authors combine state-of-the-art quantitative analysis with rich qualitative readings of archival and non-archival sources. The result is a fresh exploration of how colonial archives, when placed alongside other kinds of evidence, open new pathways to understanding the global dynamics of slavery and coerced labour.