BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//132.216.98.100//NONSGML kigkonsult.se iCalcreator 2.20.4// BEGIN:VEVENT UID:20260711T040423EDT-34855IbobH@132.216.98.100 DTSTAMP:20260711T080423Z DESCRIPTION:A seminar with Elizabeth Elbourne - Slavery Old and New: Labour Exploitation Through the Ages and Around the Globe seminar series\nJoin u s for a video-conference with Elizabeth Elborne\, hosted by the Hans & Tam ar Oppenheimer Chair in Public International Law\, the Institute for Compa rative Law\, and the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on Africa and i ts Diasporas.\nA light lunch will be served: kindly RSVP to oppenheimer [a t] mcgill [dot] ca.\nAbstract\nAfter Britain abolished first the slave tra de in 1807 and then slavery itself in the British empire in 1834\, British abolitionists turned their attention to abolishing the slave trade elsewh ere in the world in a manner that raises issues of relevance to contempora ry debates about international law and humanitarian intervention. Abolitio n became a justification for colonialism even as the British tested the li mits of international law in intercepting slave trading vessels.\nThis pap er looks more particularly at the Niger Expedition of 1841-1842\, which ai med to persuade African chiefs to sign treaties abjuring slavery and the s lave trade in exchange for preferential commercial exchange with Great Bri tain. Three exploratory steamships were dispatched down the river Niger\, led by “godly” ship captains with a public mandate for negotiation and a p rivate mandate for the acquisition of territory\, accompanied by scientist s\, missionaries and agents charged with developing a model farm to teach cotton production.\nAlthough the expedition was a failure with a catastrop hic death rate from disease\, it raised important questions around treaty- making\, contract (could non-Christian African chiefs be adequate contract ing agents and if not could abolition exist without colonialism?)\, ethica l commerce (how could commerce be made morally viable\, especially if carr ied out by immoral agents?)\, humanitarian intervention and the legal limi ts of sovereignty.\nInspired in part by an eschatological faith that they were agents of God’s will in creating moral labour practices\, men and wom en who had been deeply involved in the abolition of the slave trade pushed a colonial agenda that was more aggressive than that of the Colonial Offi ce. The expedition can also fruitfully be seen as a failed development pro ject.\nElizabeth Elbourne is Associate Professor and Chair\, in the Depart ment of History and Classical Studies\, 91. Her publication s include the collection Sex\, Power and Slavery (Ohio University Press\, 2014\; co-edited with Gwyn Campbell)\, and Blood Ground: Colonialism\, Mis sions and the Contest for Christianity in Britain and the Eastern Cape\, 1 799-1853 (91-Queens\, 2004). She has just finished a stint as joint ed itor (with Brian Cowan) of the Journal of British Studies.\n DTSTART:20150119T180000Z DTEND:20150119T193000Z LOCATION:room 107\, Ferrier Building\, CA\, QC\, Montreal\, H3A 0G2\, 840 a venue du Docteur-Penfield SUMMARY:After abolition: British humanitarian colonialism\, the Niger Exped ition and the drive to remake African labour URL:/channels/event/after-abolition-british-humanitari an-colonialism-niger-expedition-and-drive-remake-african-labour-241065 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR