This essay by Marc-William Palen seeks to trace the many—and often conflicting—economic ideological interpretations of the transatlantic abolitionist impulse. In particular, it explores the contested relationship between free-trade ideology and transatlantic abolitionism, and highlights the understudied influence of Victorian free-trade ideology within the American abolitionist movement. By bringing together historiographical controversies from the American and British side, the essay calls into question long-standing conceptions regarding the relationship between free trade and abolitionism, and suggests new avenues for research.
Election Watch 20244 June 2015
Free-trade ideology and transatlantic abolitionism: a historiography
This essay by Marc-William Palen seeks to trace the many—and often conflicting—economic ideological interpretations of the transatlantic abolitionist impulse. In particular, it explores the contested relationship between free-trade ideology and transatlantic abolitionism, and highlights the understudied influence of Victorian free-trade ideology within the American abolitionist movement. By bringing together historiographical controversies from the American and British side, the essay calls into question long-standing conceptions regarding the relationship between free trade and abolitionism, and suggests new avenues for research.
![conspiracy of free trade.jpg](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/ooh1fq7e/production/11a1222bc6be4c46e550a058d07a5eca8543d695-448x252.jpg/conspiracy%20of%20free%20trade.jpg?w=320&h=180&auto=format)
Books and journals by
Dr Marc-William Palen
LecturerThe University of Exeter