Abigail L. Swingen’s new book begins with a simple question: “Why did England establish and maintain an empire in the Americas during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries?” (1). This deceptively simple query is posed in full knowledge of the fact that scholars have variously concluded that the colonies either grew up willy-nilly as the product of the initiative of disparate groups often left to their own devices or were the product of a coherent and uniform mercantilist vision of empire emanating from London. What these two opposing views ignore, Swingen asserts, is that there was a great deal more debate—both in England and between the metropole and colonies—about the nature and purpose of colonies and that labor, especially slavery, was central to these ongoing conversations. Thus, and in direct contrast to those who might lay the blame for the expansion of slavery and its prominent place within the empire at...
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
