ABSTRACT
David Brion Davis’s book The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution, 1770–1823, along with his other works, is likely to remain important for historians. In the 1970s and 1980s the work generated a major debate about the link between the rise of capitalism and the emergence of antislavery. Since the publication of The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution scholars have—convincingly—disproved the thesis that Britain’s slave colonies were in decline when the British abolished slavery. While he stresses the religious and philosophical origins of antislavery ideas, Davis argues that an unintended consequence of the antislavery movement was that it helped to legitimize the emerging capitalist work structure. But it was this unforeseen link that motivated the British elite to argue for abolition, as it supported class interests. Davis also argues that the advancing of class interests was not always a product of conscious choice.
