ABSTRACT
Defining unfree or forced labor is a rather complex task, first because, in a sense, all labor is forced, as most people are forced to work to survive. Different forms of unfree labor undoubtedly had a strong influence on the development of the Americas and the Atlantic world. The Spanish implemented Portuguese model in the Greater Antilles during the 16th century, and in the 17th century, it provided an attractive template for French and English colonizers. The phenomenon of debt peonage, as it developed in Latin America in the colonial era and spread especially after independence, takes diverse forms. From the early 1920s onward, coercion was legalized through vagrancy legislation whereby indigenous people were compelled to work on coffee plantations for a stipulated number of days per annum. The anthology edited by Brass and van der Linden, containing several regional studies that confirm the validity of the “shadow of slavery” proposed by Alan Knight, is an outstanding survey.
