Catalogue

Everill (Warwick Univ., UK) comparatively examines the Anglo-Atlantic abolitionist movement to illustrate the similarities and differences within the early-19th-century development of Sierra Leone and Liberia. The author demonstrates that while an international anti-slavery movement suggests a sense of unity, in reality the decisions to create, settle, and govern Sierra Leone and Liberia differed in Britain and the US, notwithstanding the collaboration that existed. Everill shows that over time, rivalries developed between the British and US abolitionist movements that hindered collaboration and created problems for both settlements. The work does an excellent job of exploring the relationship between imperial desires and each state's involvement within their African settlements, while paying particular attention to the individuals involved. Everill logically moves between the international and national abolitionist movements and the leaders of the settlements to demonstrate how changes within each nation influenced their relations with their own settlement and that of the other. Of particular interest is the focus on the consequences of the civilizing mission within West Africa and the role that "legitimate trade," which existed alongside a continued Atlantic slave trade, played in each settlement's internal and external development. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. T. M. Reese Univ. of North Dakota