Completed Project

Redrawing Slavery

Developing a new approach to understanding the emergence of slavery and its development over time.

Project summary

The Challenge

There has been a long-standing debate about the nature and definition of enslavement, and factors that have contributed to slavery past and present

The Approach

The project created a fresh theoretical perspective on the origins and progression of slavery.

The Outcome

Our research helped to uncover factors that justified the practice of enslavement in the past, and why slavery still exists today.

Lead academics

Funded by

The Challenge

The existence of modern-day slavery has added to the long-standing debate about the nature and definition of enslavement. This project questioned our understanding of slavery by exploring how legal concepts, not just criminal exploitation, have contributed to slavery in the past and the present.

The Approach

Using groundbreaking research exploring the origins and development of slavery in both illegal and legal forms, the Redrawing Slavery project developed a new theoretical approach to the emergence of slavery and its development over time.

Examining the process of enslavement at a number of key points in history, the project was able to extensively assess the origins and development of slavery from the earliest laws to present day.

The Impact

By revealing a number of factors that justified the practice of enslavement in the past, the project is helping to tackle modern day slavery.

Case studies

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Project summary

The Challenge

The Approach

The Outcome

Lead academics

Funded by

The Challenge

The Approach

The Impact

Case studies

Antislavery Usable Past

Debt, Poverty and Slavery

ECHOES

Remembering 1807

Stolen Lives

The Antislavery Knowledge Network