Buying Freedom

Brings together economists, anthropologists, historians, and philosophers for an examination of the practical and ethical implications of slave redemption. This book includes essays by the editors and by Dean Karlan and Alan Krueger, Carol Ann Rogers and Kenneth Swinnerton, Arnab Basu and Nancy Chau, Stanley Engerman, and more. Top page

Complete description

If 'slavery' is defined broadly to include bonded child labor and forced prostitution, there are upward of 25 million slaves in the world today. Individuals and groups are freeing some slaves by buying them from their enslavers. But slave redemption is as controversial today as it was in pre-Civil War America. In "Buying Freedom", Kwame Anthony Appiah and Martin Bunzl bring together economists, anthropologists, historians, and philosophers for the first comprehensive examination of the practical and ethical implications of slave redemption.While recognizing the obvious virtue of the desire to buy the freedom of slaves, the contributors ask difficult and troubling questions: Does redeeming slaves actually increase the demand for - and so the number of - slaves? And what about cases where it is far from clear that redemption will improve the material condition, or increase the real freedom, of a slave? "Buying Freedom" includes essays by the editors and by Dean Karlan and Alan Krueger, Carol Ann Rogers and Kenneth Swinnerton, Arnab Basu and Nancy Chau, Stanley Engerman, Jonathan Conning and Michael Kevane, Jok Madut Jok, Ann McDougall, Lisa Cook, Margaret Kellow, John Stauffer, and Howard McGary. Top page

General info

Publisher & Imprint: Princeton University Press

City: New Jersey

Pages: 296

More info: height 229 mm width 152 mm weight 542 gr thickness 23 mm

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Age recommended: Professional and scholarly

Subject Indexing & Classification Dewey: 306.362 Library of Congress Subject: Slavery

Summary Buying Freedom Foreword by Kevin Bales vii Introduction by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Martin Bunzl 1 PART I: THE ECONOMICS OF REDEMPTION 7 Chapter 1: Some Simple Analytics of Slave Redemption by Dean S. Karlan and Alan B. Krueger 9 Chapter 2: Slave Redemption When It Takes Time to Redeem Slaves by Carol Ann Rogers and Kenneth A. Swinnerton 20 Chapter 3: An Exploration of the Worst Forms of Child Labor: Is Redemption a Viable Option? by Arnab K. Basu and Nancy H. Chau 37 Chapter 4: Slavery, Freedom, and Sen by Stanley Engerman 77 Chapter 5: Freedom, Servitude, and Voluntary Contracts by Jonathan Conning and Michael Kevane 108 PART II: ANTHROPOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS 141 Chapter 6: Slavery and Slave Redemption in the Sudan by Jok Madut Jok 143 Chapter 7: Dilemmas in the Practice of Rachat in French West Africa by E. Ann McDougall 158 PART III: HISTORICAL CONSIDERATIONS 179 Chapter 8: The End of Serfdom in Russia-Lessons for Sudan? by Lisa D. Cook 181 Chapter 9: Conflicting Imperatives: Black and White American Abolitionists Debate Slave Redemption by Margaret M. R. Kellow 200 Chapter 10: Frederick Douglass and the Politics of Slave Redemptions by John Stauffer 213 PART IV: PHILOSOPHICAL CONSIDERATIONS 223 Chapter 11: The Moral Quandary of Slave Redemption by Howard McGary 225 Chapter 12: The Next Best Thing by Martin Bunzl 235 Chapter 13: What's Wrong with Slavery? by Kwame Anthony Appiah 249 Appendix: "They Call Us Animals," Testimonies of Abductees and Slaves in Sudan by Jok Madut Jok 259 List of Contributors 269 Index 271 Top page

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