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This wide-ranging history of the West Indies was originally published in 1793, and is here presented in the five- volume edition of 1819. As a planter, Edwards is particularly concerned with agriculture, commerce and the question of slavery, but also includes history, anthropology, politics and colonial affairs.

In the years preceding the American Civil War, religion was at the heart of the debate over slavery. William Ellery Channing (1780-1842) had rejected the strict Calvinism of his background to become the leading Unitarian spokesman and preacher, and in later life he began to address the subject of slavery. Published in 1836, this work was Channing's most substantial contribution to the debate, revealing the real difficulties men such as Channing had in questioning a practice with which they had grown up. He vacillates between contempt for the institution and empathy for the slaveholders, writing, 'I do not intend to pass sentence on the character of the slave-holder.' He sees black slaves as humans, but not of equal status with white people. The final chapter is particularly prescient: 'There is a great dread ... that the union of the States may be dissolved by the conflict about slavery.'

A wealthy planter in the West Indies, Bryan Edwards (1743-1800) lived in Jamaica during the peak of its sugar wealth. This 1796 publication relates to the recent conflict between the British and runaway slaves, known as Maroons. Edwards prefaces the various letters and documents with an extended introductory account.

Olaudah Equiano (c.1745-97) was born in Nigeria and sold into slavery as a child. His successful 1789 autobiography boosted the abolitionist cause and remains a classic account of the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade. It is also a significant work of black British history and literature.

Granville Sharp (1735-1813) was a founding member of the London committee of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. This 1776 tract, a riposte to the idea that slavery is sanctioned by God, is a rigorous defence of liberty and of 'the honour of holy Scriptures'.

This reissue incorporates Thomas Clarkson's 1786 Essay alongside John Newton's graphic Thoughts on the African Slave Trade (1788), a first-hand account of his experiences of the Middle Passage in the 1750s. Clarkson's highly influential piece marks the beginning of the anti-slavery campaigning to which he devoted his life.

An extensive collection of first-hand testimony and narratives by slaveholders describing the facts and highlighting the cruelty of the slave trade. First published in 1839 and edited by the evangelist and abolitionist Theodore Dwight Weld (1803-95), this work was one of the most influential books of the anti-slavery movement.

First published in 1784, this work documents the findings of a Christian missionary and surgeon who spent twenty years observing the exploitation of African slaves in the West Indian sugar plantations. Highly influential in the anti-slavery movement, it remains relevant in Caribbean and colonial history.

Britain's 1807 law abolishing slave trading in its empire was put to the test during trials in Sierra Leone in 1812, an 1813 report on which is reissued here, alongside a short 1876 account of the 1772 Somerset v. Stewart case that represented a milestone on the road to abolition.

Sir Harry Hamilton Johnston (1858-1927) was an explorer and colonial administrator. This book is his fictionalised account of the life of a slave, based on anecdotes gathered on his travels. A brutal and often gruesome depiction of one man's survival in the face of violence, cannibalism and extreme cruelty.

William Wilberforce (1759-1833) was a politician, philanthropist and evangelical Christian, now best known for his work to abolish the slave trade. He devoted much of his life to the ending of slavery, and other moral and humanitarian causes. The letters were published in 1840 by two of his sons.

William Wilberforce (1759-1833) was a politician, philanthropist and evangelical Christian, now best known for his efforts to end the slave trade. This five-volume biography, drawn from his diaries and letters, was published by his sons in 1838, and shows the circumstances and motivations which drove Wilberforce's career.

Harriet Ann Jacobs (1813-1897) was born into slavery in North Carolina, but escaped to the north. She became involved with the Anti-Slavery Society, and her autobiography was published in 1861. Jacobs' first-hand account of the abuse suffered by slaves, especially women, caused shock and outrage.

William Wilberforce (1759-1833) was a politician, philanthropist and evangelical Christian, now best known for his work to end the slave trade. In 1807 he wrote this long Letter to his constituents justifying his preoccupation with abolition and setting out all his arguments against the slave trade.

James Stephen (1758-1832) was a British lawyer and slavery abolitionist. This volume, first published in 1804, contains his discussion of Britain's political foreign policy choices and their potential impact following the successful Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) and provides valuable insights into the contemporary political situation surrounding Haiti.

This 1797 history of the uprising of slaves in the French colony of St Domingo (now Haiti) was written by a West Indian planter, who opposed abolition. He dwells on the atrocities committed by the slaves, but attributes the rebellion to French misrule, from which Britain must learn.

A two-volume portrait of the first two hundred years of Antiguan history since British colonisation. Memoirs, legends and documents are used to follow the British aristocrats who established the infrastructure of the island during colonisation and the rise of the slave trade, and show how Antigua's identity was shaped.

First published in 1862, this analysis of the economics of slavery as a cause of the American Civil War did much to bring British public opinion to support the Union. Written by one of the foremost economists of the day, he argues that history is chiefly shaped by economic causes.

Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton (1786-1845) was a noted social reformer and one of the leading members of the campaign to abolish slavery. The Remedy, first published in 1840, called on the government to assist African development, so that African chiefs did not need to participate in the trade.

Joseph Sturge (1793-1859) and Thomas Harvey (1812-1884) were philanthropists involved with the anti-slavery movement. This volume, first published in 1838 and with a second edition (reissued here) in the same year, describes their 1837 visit to the West Indies and observations on the lives of ex-slaves.

This 1823 volume on the management of Jamaican sugar plantations is an important primary source for the study of the slave economy and agricultural methods in the West Indies. It sets out in great detail all aspects of the ideal estate, the work and the people involved.

This 1803 work outlined the background to, and conduct of, the Second Maroon War of 1795-1796 between the British and settlements of runaway slaves in Jamaica. Confronting guerilla tactics by the rebels, General Walpole used fierce bloodhounds to force their surrender, and many were captured and deported.

James Stephen published Volume 1 of Slavery in 1824. The work exposed the cruelty and inhumanity of the slave laws of the West Indies. It contributed to the public outcry that led to the final abolition of slavery in British territories. It is a key text of the abolitionist movement.

John Davy (1790-1868) was an English army doctor who was appointed Inspector General of Army Hospitals. This volume, first published in 1854, describes the culture and society of Barbados and other Caribbean Islands and provides valuable descriptions of the social conditions which existed after the Emancipation Act.

This 1903 monograph focuses upon the use and development of the institution of contract labour or indentured servitude in the Hawaiian sugar industry of the later nineteenth century. Along the way author Katharine Coman reveals the details of a system that in her estimation benefited both labourers and owners.

Stephen Bourne (1791-1868) was a British civil servant who served in the West Indies between 1834 and 1848 with his daughter Elizabeth Campbell. This volume contains two essays by Campbell and a letter by Bourne discussing the social and economic effects of the Emancipation Act in the West Indies.

James Stephen (1758-1832) was a lawyer, anti-slavery advocate, and Member of Parliament. He argued that the French should not be allowed to reinstate older slavery practices on its West Indian colonies for fear of the consequences for the neighbouring British colonies. It was published in London in 1802.

Edward Long's three-volume History of Jamaica (1774) was the first attempt at a comprehensive description of the colony, constructed as a vigorous defence of its slave economy. Volume 1 provides an overview of the colonial government, a history of the island's conquest, and detailed economic data.

Little is known about the anonymous author of this book, later identified as one Charles Leslie, whose family had strong Caribbean interests. This 1740 second edition covers Jamaica's early colonial history, its laws, the lives of its governors, the trading of slaves, and the exploits of famous Caribbean pirates.

The career of the slave trader Captain Theodore Canot (1804-60) was long and eventful. First published in 1854 and edited by Brantz Mayer (1809-79), this is an intimate and sometimes graphic account of Canot's life, giving a first-hand description of the practicalities and difficulties of the slave trade.