The Overseer State

Sascha Auerbach is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Nottingham and a former Fullbright Scholar and Leverhulme Trust Fellow. He is the author of Armed with Sword and Scales (2022) and Race, Law and 'The Chinese Puzzle' in Imperial Britain (2009).

• List of Maps and Tables, Acknowledgements, Introduction: Paper Chains for Iron Chains; 1. 'Not Fit for the Enjoyment of Freedo': Amelioration and the Origins of the Overseer-State, 1812–1834; 2. 'To Go and Look for Law': Early Responses to the Overseer-State, 1823–1836; 3. 'A Most Imperfect Act of Abolition': Apprenticeship and Early Indenture in the Atlantic and Indian Ocean Worlds, 1834–1842; 4. 'A System Entirely Favourable to the Poorer Class of Natives': Health, Moral Reform, and Coercion in the Indenture System, 1840–1864; 5. Man, In His Natural State ... Must Either be Led by Conviction, or by Force': Magistrates, Workers' Agency, and State Violence, 1840–1873; 6. 'They Must Know Their Master, and He Must Know Them': Labor Governance and Sovereignty on the Imperial Frontier in Southeast Asia, 1867–1890; 7. 'They Have Made the Government Arbitrary Enough': The Decline of the Overseer-State, 1870–1904; Conclusion: The Persistent Legacies of the Overseer-State; Bibliography; Index.

'This brilliant book about systems of labour governance across the British empire from late slavery through systems of indenture transforms our understanding of labour history and the world-historical context of workers' demands for recognition of their rights and needs as human beings.' Marilyn Lake, author of Drawing the Global Colour Line