Child Slaves in the Modern World by Gwyn Campbell, Suzanne Miers, Joseph C. Miller (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Child Slaves in the Modern World by Gwyn Campbell, Suzanne Miers, Joseph C. Miller Colleen A. Vasconcellos Child Slaves in the Modern World. By Gwyn Campbell, Suzanne Miers, and Joseph C. Miller, eds. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2011. v + 281 pp. $24.95. Having already reviewed the first book in this two-volume set (JHCY volume 3, number 3), it was a pleasure to be given the same opportunity with this book. As with its companion, the editors of Child Slaves in the Modern World note that this is not a comprehensive anthology of child slavery in the modern world. Hopefully this assertion forces the reader to pause and think about the weight of that statement. Chapters on India’s child brides or the numerous children who labored in Stalin’s gulags are not included. Yet, this second volume does build upon the complex and fluid perimeters of childhood and slavery set by the first in order to show a blurry, somewhat subjective definition of childhood that is just as difficult to delineate in the modern world. This speaks as much to the ever-changing nature of childhood as to the environments and cultures in which these children lived and labored. While this second volume continues to force readers to rethink their definition and perception of slavery and childhood, Child Slaves in the Modern World also shows them how these boundaries continued to change once enlightened citizens began to push for the abolition of the slave trade and slavery in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Divided into two sections, this book takes more of a chronological approach than the first. While the first section examines child slavery during the era of abolition, the final five chapters comprise a second section examining enslaved children in the modern era. Although the difference in size between the two sections makes the volume seem a bit imbalanced, each section has its strengths. Furthermore, that imbalance becomes more understandable as the reader delves deeper into the volume. The majority of the chapters contained in the first section focus on children enslaved in Africa from 1790 to 1914, adding more imbalance to the volume despite the editors’ promise of a wide geographical range. However, Sue Taylor’s examination of the complex negotiations between parents and the Caracas Courts over enslaved children and Nara Milanich’s discussion of tutelary servitude in Latin America challenge more traditional ideas of slavery in the Americas to show that children, and not always children [End Page 396] of African descent, were enslaved and used as labor outside of the conventional plantation setting. That said, Cicely Jones’s outstanding piece on plantation children in the British Caribbean challenges that traditional viewpoint further by showcasing child resistance and agency. In perhaps the most interesting chapter of the section, Benjamin Lawrence presents a fascinating discussion of the experiences of the four children captive aboard La Amistad, children who seem to have had more of an active role than Hollywood’s Cinque. The remaining five chapters of this section focus on children’s experiences in the slave trade and colonial Africa. Yet, despite this heavy focus on Africa, readers begin to understand this imbalance as they progress through the final chapters of this first section. Just as the editors challenge customary views of childhood and slavery, they also expand the more commonly used periodization of the Age of Abolition—a strategic move that forces readers to look into the twentieth century. As they point out in their introduction, many chapters included in this section discuss the experiences of enslaved children living in a time when abolitionists witnessed the increased emancipation of slaves throughout the Western world. However, slavery continued in Africa and still continues there today. Therefore, while William Clarence-Smith shows how lax Catholic policies were in ending slavery in central Africa, Trevor Getz discusses the ineptitude and cultural naiveté of the colonial administrators handling enslaved children in the early colonial Gold Coast. After reading about the state enslavement of children in post-emancipation Senegal, as discussed by Bernard Moitt, one is not surprised that the practice persisted. Hopefully these chapters push the reader to question those enlightened abolitionists of...