1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910828561403321

Autore

Choi-Fitzpatrick Austin

Titolo

What slaveholders think : how contemporary perpetrators rationalize what they do / / Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York, [New York] : , : Columbia University Press, , 2017

©2017

ISBN

0-231-54382-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (243 pages)

Disciplina

306.3/620905

Soggetti

Slavery - History - 21st century

Human trafficking

Forced labor

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1. In All Its Forms: Slavery and Abolition, Movements and Targets -- 2. Best-Laid Plans: A Partial Theory of Social Movement Targets -- 3. Just Like Family: Slaveholders on Slavery -- 4. As If We Are Equal: Slaveholders on Emancipation -- 5. The Farmer in the Middle: Target Response to Threats -- 6. Private Wrongs: Slavery and Antislavery in Contemporary India -- 7. Long Goodbye: The Contemporary Antislavery Movement -- 8. Between Good and Evil: The Everyday Ethics of Resources and Reappraisal -- Notes -- References -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Drawing on fifteen years of work in the antislavery movement, Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick examines the systematic oppression of men, women, and children in rural India and asks: How do contemporary slaveholders rationalize the subjugation of other human beings, and how do they respond when their power is threatened? More than a billion dollars have been spent on antislavery efforts, yet the practice persists. Why? Unpacking what slaveholders think about emancipation is critical for scholars and policy makers who want to understand the broader context, especially as seen by the powerful. Insight into those moments when the powerful either double down or back off provides a sobering counterbalance to scholarship on popular struggle. Through frank and



unprecedented conversations with slaveholders, Choi-Fitzpatrick reveals the condescending and paternalistic thought processes that blind them. While they understand they are exploiting workers' vulnerabilities, slaveholders also feel they are doing workers a favor, often taking pride in this relationship. And when the victims share this perspective, their emancipation is harder to secure, driving some in the antislavery movement to ask why slaves fear freedom. The answer, Choi-Fitzpatrick convincingly argues, lies in the power relationship. Whether slaveholders recoil at their past behavior or plot a return to power, Choi-Fitzpatrick zeroes in on the relational dynamics of their self-assessment, unpacking what happens next. Incorporating the experiences of such pivotal actors into antislavery research is an immensely important step toward crafting effective antislavery policies and intervention. It also contributes to scholarship on social change, social movements, and the realization of human rights.