Overview

In this compelling work, Sascha Auerbach offers a bold new historical interpretation of late-stage slavery, its long-term legacies, and its entanglement with the development of the modern state. In the wake of abolition, from the Caribbean to southern Africa to Southeast Asia, a fusion of government authority and private industry replaced the iron chains of slavery with equally powerful fetters of law and regulation. This 'overseer-state' helped move, often through deceptive and coercive methods, millions of Indian and Chinese indentured laborers across Britain's imperial possessions. With a perspective that ranges from Parliament to the plantation, the book brings to light the fascinating and terrifying history of the world's first truly global labor system, those who struggled under its heavy yoke, and the bitter legacies left in its wake.

Full Product Details

Author:   Sascha Auerbach (University of Nottingham)
Publisher:   Cambridge University Press
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
ISBN:  

9781009315760

ISBN 10:   1009315765
Pages:   384
Publication Date:   14 May 2026
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available, will be POD  
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Table of Contents

List of Maps and Tables, Acknowledgements, Introduction: Paper Chains for Iron Chains; 1. 'Not Fit for the Enjoyment of Freedo': Amelioration and the Origins of the Overseer-State, 1812–1834; 2. 'To Go and Look for Law': Early Responses to the Overseer-State, 1823–1836; 3. 'A Most Imperfect Act of Abolition': Apprenticeship and Early Indenture in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean Worlds, 1834–1842; 4. 'A System Entirely Favourable to the Poorer Class of Natives': Health, Moral Reform, and Coercion in the Indenture System, 1840–1864; 5. Man, In His Natural State ... Must Either be Led by Conviction, or by Force': Magistrates, Workers' Agency, and State Violence, 1840–1873; 6. 'They Must Know Their Master, and He Must Know Them': Labor Governance and Sovereignty on the Imperial Frontier in Southeast Asia, 1867–1890; 7. 'They Have Made the Government Arbitrary Enough': The Decline of the Overseer-State, 1870–1904; Conclusion: The Persistent Legacies of the Overseer-State; Bibliography; Index.

Reviews

'This brilliant book about systems of labour governance across the British empire from late slavery through systems of indenture transforms our understanding of labour history and the world-historical context of workers' demands for recognition of their rights and needs as human beings.' Marilyn Lake, author of Drawing the Global Colour Line 'A compelling account of the overseer-state across wide swaths of the British Empire. In this impressively researched book, Sascha Auerbach documents how the British state took on the role of labour management and control in its Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and Southeast Asian colonies as a result of amelioration, apprenticeship, and indenture.' Gad Heuman, The Caribbean: A Brief History 'This is an ambitious, erudite, world-spanning book that promises and fully deserves to become a foundational text in our understanding of the British imperial world.' Philip Harling, The English Historical Review

Author Information

Sascha Auerbach is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Nottingham and a former Fullbright Scholar and Leverhulme Trust Fellow. He is the author of Armed with Sword and Scales (2022) and Race, Law and 'The Chinese Puzzle' in Imperial Britain (2009).

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