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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 December 2024

Justin Roberts
Affiliation:
Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia
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Summary

The introduction establishes seventeenth-century English ideas about the tropics, showing that they conceptualized the tropical or “torrid zone” as a coherent and distinct entity. The English thought of that region as both more abundant in resources and more deadly than the more temperate zones. This tropical zone was the focus of early English overseas expansion. The Atlantic World perspective may be too limiting as a geographical framework for understanding the rise of the English empire. Scholars should explore English colonization models across the tropics in the eastern and western hemisphere in a comparative perspective to better appreciate both the development of the early empire and the origins and rise of slavery within that empire. The introduction also argues that the distinctiveness of the variant of slavery that emerged in the English empire can best be understood through the broader framework of the global tropics, linking the Atlantic and Indian oceans.

Type
Chapter
Information
Fragile Empire
Slavery in the Early English Tropics, 1645–1720
, pp. 1 - 27
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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  • Introduction
  • Justin Roberts, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia
  • Book: Fragile Empire
  • Online publication: 19 December 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108622288.003
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Introduction
  • Justin Roberts, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia
  • Book: Fragile Empire
  • Online publication: 19 December 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108622288.003
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Justin Roberts, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia
  • Book: Fragile Empire
  • Online publication: 19 December 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108622288.003
Available formats
×