‘To Go and Look for Law’: Late-Stage Slavery, Amelioration, and the Colonial State in the British Crown Colonies

Focusing on the crown colonies acquired by Britain during the Napoleonic Wars, this article examines the integration of state oversight with colonial labor discipline during the final decades of slavery. The structural foundations post-emancipation rule in the crown colonies were laid by the policies of amelioration, but the social, cultural, and legal dynamics built on these foundations were profoundly shaped by the responses of enslaved Africans. The role of the state in these colonial labor systems was thus reciprocally constructed by the rulers and the ruled, albeit from vastly asymmetrical positions of authority.