ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author explore continuities between Caribbean slavery, supposedly abolished from 1833, and the dramatic expansion of the new Anglophone settler colonies sometimes termed the 'Settler Revolution', which from 1815 propelled white English-speaking emigrants around the globe to create a transcontinental system of colonies. The author starts by examining the ameliorative phase of the elite anti-slavery movement during the decade leading up to abolition, when both pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions worked to reform the Caribbean system. The enduring tension between the elite abolitionist movement's humanitarian concern for Caribbean slaves, and its simultaneous implication in the repression of British workers intensified during the 1820s, with the corollary of enhancing transportation's deterrent status and convict abjection. In November 1819, for example, Bigge seized upon the idea of establishing a 'sugar manufactory' at Port Macquarie, in northern New South Wales, which he thought might offer 'constant as well as profitable employment' for the convicts.
