Jonathan Connolly - Worthy of Freedom: Indenture and Free Labor in the Era of Emancipation

In this book talk and discussion, Jonathan Connolly will present Worthy of Freedom, a history of Indian indentured labor in Mauritius, British Guiana, and Trinidad after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire. Weaving together arguments concerning political culture, law, and economic conflict and change, the book examines the making of post-slavery indenture in relation to the wider project of emancipation. It shows how debates surrounding indenture intertwined with shifting, contested notions of emancipation; how and why the law of indenture and category of free labor changed over time; and how indenture restructured the political economy of emancipation. In the process, the book offers reflections on liberalism and empire, and on the construction of racial categories and their impact on labor law.

Jonathan Connolly is an assistant professor of history at the University of Illinois Chicago. He is the author of Worthy of Freedom: Indenture and Free Labor in the Era of Emancipation (University of Chicago Press, 2024). A scholar of emancipation, labor, law, and migration, Connolly has also published in Past & Present, Slavery & Abolition, the Law and History Review, and Comparative Studies in Society and History.