Attitudes and policies toward Atlantic slavery and the slave trade among intellectuals, civil servants, and elected officials in the Kingdom of Sardinia are examined in this essay as an indicator of Italian integration with and reaction to global issues. The main focus is the anti-slave trade law passed by the Sardinian Parliament in 1853. Using research on consular and diplomatic sources, travel accounts, and parliamentary records, I attempt to show that Italian attitudes toward slavery and abolition were neither remnants of a not-so-distant Mediterranean past nor echoes of remote colonial worlds but, rather, part of Italy’s integration into the 19th-century Atlantic world and international system. I also argue that these attitudes can be seen as a marker of the Italian encounter with the global Other at a time when Italian identity and politics were being shaped by transnational connections as well as by domestic forces.

The Atlantic slave trade on Italian shores: The case of the Kingdom of Sardinia (1815–1853)

MARIANO MARCO
2021-01-01

Abstract

Attitudes and policies toward Atlantic slavery and the slave trade among intellectuals, civil servants, and elected officials in the Kingdom of Sardinia are examined in this essay as an indicator of Italian integration with and reaction to global issues. The main focus is the anti-slave trade law passed by the Sardinian Parliament in 1853. Using research on consular and diplomatic sources, travel accounts, and parliamentary records, I attempt to show that Italian attitudes toward slavery and abolition were neither remnants of a not-so-distant Mediterranean past nor echoes of remote colonial worlds but, rather, part of Italy’s integration into the 19th-century Atlantic world and international system. I also argue that these attitudes can be seen as a marker of the Italian encounter with the global Other at a time when Italian identity and politics were being shaped by transnational connections as well as by domestic forces.
2021
Global Perspectives in Modern Italian Culture. Knowledge and Representation of the World in Italy from the Sixteenth to the Early Nineteenth Century
Routledge
Ideas beyond Borders. Studies in Transnational Intelelctual HIstory
249
265
978-0-367-46792-0
Schiavitù, Abolizionismo, Stati italiani, Storia atlantica
MARIANO MARCO
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
Mariano_The Atlantic slave trade on Italian shores_Global perspectives in Modern Italian Culture_ed_Abbattista (2021).pdf

Accesso aperto

Tipo di file: PDF EDITORIALE
Dimensione 12.97 MB
Formato Adobe PDF
12.97 MB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2318/1852271
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact