Events

Guest Speaker: Dr Jake Subryan Richards, The London School of Economics and Political Science

Title: (Book Presentation) 'The Bonds of Freedom: Liberated Africans and the End of the Slave Trade' (Yale University Press 2025)

Abstract: The Bonds of Freedom tells the forgotten story of people seized from slave ships by maritime patrols, “liberated,” then forced into bonded labour between 1807 and 1880. Using extensive archival research from Sierra Leone, South Africa, Brazil, Cuba, the United Kingdom, and the United States, historian Jake Subryan Richards uncovers the contrasting ideas and practices of authoritarianism and freedom that empires and liberated Africans developed during the protracted end of the illegal slave trade. Following the Africans’ journeys from enslavement to liberation, Richards recounts their capture and embarkation on ships that participated in the vast slave trade to Brazil and Cuba, the maritime seizure of those ships, and the adjudication that assigned freed captives to bonded labour. The captives fought against their bondage as state agents limited their freedom of choice and movement. The liberated Africans’ story shows that, far from following a straighforward path to freedom, these men and women navigated antii-slave-trade laws that both subjected them to authoritarian control and provided a domain for them to create their own visions of freedom. Through meticulous research and engaging narrative, Richards sheds light on their legal battles, community-building efforts, and ongoing quest for justice and autonomy in the face of enduring challenges.