Modern scholarship on the relationship between British capitalism and Caribbean slavery has been profoundly influenced by Eric Williams's 1944 classic, Capitalism and Slavery. The present volume represents the proceedings of a conference on Caribbean Slavery and British Capitalism convened in his honour in 1984, and includes essays on Dr Williams's scholarly work and influence. These essays, by thirteen scholars from the United States, England, Africa, Canada and the Caribbean, explore the relationship between Great Britain and her plantation slave colonies in the Caribbean.

Preface; 1. British capitalism and Caribbean slavery: the legacy of Eric Williams: an introduction Barbara L. Solow and Stanley L. Engerman; Part I. Slavery as an Economic Phenomenon: 2. Race and slavery: considerations on the Williams Thesis William A. Green; Part II. Caribbean Slavery and the Industrial Revolution: 3. Capitalism and slavery in the exceedingly long run Barbara L. Solow; 4. Slavery and the development of industrial capitalism in England Joseph E. Inikori; 5. The slave trade, sugar, and British economic growth, 1748-1776 David Richardson; Part III. The Decline of the British West Indies: 6. The American Revolution and the British West Indies' economy Selwyn H. H. Carrington; 7. 'Dreadful Idlers' in the cane fields: the slave labor pattern on a Jamaican sugar estate, 1762-1831 Richard S. Dunn; Part IV. The Basis of Abolition and Emancipation: 8. Paradigms tossed: capitalism and the political sources of abolition Seymour Drescher; 9. Capitalism, abolitionism, and hegemony David Brion Davis; 10. Eric Williams and abolition: the birth of a new orthodoxy Howard Temperley; 11. What and who to whom and what: the significance of slave resistance Michael Craton; Part V. Capitalism and Slavery in Historical Perspective: 12. Capitalism and slavery on the Islands: a lesson from the mainland Gavin Wright; 13. 'The Williams Effect': Eric Williams's Capitalism and Slavery and the growth of West Indian political economy Hilary McD. Beckles; 14. Eric Williams and Capitalism and Slavery: a biographical and historiographical essay Richard B. Sheridan.