Slave No More

“Delivers a thorough examination of the history of slavery in the Americas. . . . Unravels the evidence to provide new insight into how slaves over those three centuries pursued freedom. . . . A valuable resource.”—CHOICE

“Helg displays an impressive command of the enormous body of secondary literature on Atlantic slavery, and she successfully puts all of that information together to form a compelling picture of slaves' self-liberation efforts throughout the Americas from the origins of slavery to the abolition of slavery in the British colony of Jamaica in 1838.”—H-Net Reviews

“This comprehensive, geographically expansive study . . . is a trenchant comparative analysis of enslaved people’s self-liberation strategies in the New World. It distills the vast historical interpretation of slavery and freedom across the Americas and makes available to students and scholars alike the continuity and rupture of slave societies as enslaved people expanded their opportunities to pursue freedom.”—Florida Historical Quarterly

“The historical canvas on which Helg works is impressively large and rich. . . . In painstaking detail, and yet with genuine humanity, Helg’s exploration of key elements within the American theater of that long struggle leaves historians of transatlantic slavery and abolition considerably in her debt.”—Journal of Interdisciplinary History

“A well-written and ambitious monograph that compels readers to recognize enslaved people as critical political thinkers and strategists. Readers find a beautifully organized story about slave resistance, and they learn how enslaved people’s strategies largely had little to do with destroying the actual system of slavery. Yet, their collective actions over the course of centuries did exactly that.”—Journal of African American History

“[Helg] provides, in rich detail, an exhaustive history of enslaved peoples' efforts to negotiate, claim, and demand freedom from slavery from the early sixteenth century to the 1838 final abolition of slavery in the British Empire. . . . Slave No More, with its impressive summary of historical events and rich bibliography, is an essential resource for students of slavery. . . . And invaluable ammunition to tackle problematic classroom conversations.”—Hispanic American Historical Review

“I cannot think of another work that is strictly comparable. More than a history of slave resistance, Slave No More is a lucid and highly original analysis of how a proportion of enslaved populations across the Americas gained their freedom independently of the system-wide emancipations that ended the institution in the nineteenth century. It will be useful in teaching, and even specialists in the comparative study of slavery are going to find surprises and new insights.”—David Geggus, University of Florida

“What makes Helg’s book unique in the historiography of slavery and slave resistance is its capacious sense of what constituted enslaved people’s struggle for freedom and equality. By bringing together what is more traditionally understood as abolitionist or antislavery activism with an analysis of forms of manumission, marronage, and resistance, Helg helps us resituate our understanding of this broad history on a scale that covers just as much of the Caribbean and Latin America as it does North America.”—Laurent Dubois, Duke University