This chapter argues that there was a rhetorical continuum between ante and post-bellum descriptions of slavery in US popular culture as the legacies and memories of ‘old slavery days’ and abolitionism were the most significant points of comparison used by authors trying to delimit and understand mutable post-bellum slavery.

This chapter highlights the crucial function of gender at its intersection with race in discourse about slavery and abolition. It takes two case studies of ‘white slavery’, which received substantial press coverage: the enslavement of Circassian women as concubines in the Ottoman Empire and ‘the white slavery panic’ about sex trafficking in the US.

This chapter shows how representations of the perpetrators of post-bellum slavery used scientific racism to conceptualize slavery using racially motivated anti-imperialism. However, the rhetoric used in othering the slave owner in the Middle East & Pacific World was contested in popular culture, as comparison with ‘old slavery days’ was also used to humanize and justify forced labour practices. These rhetorical strategies sought flexibility in the definition of slavery, often resulting in a refusal to define particular practices as slavery.

Within the United States, the years from 1865 to 1920 represent a period during which the various understandings of the notion of slavery evolved and simultaneously became more entrenched and important within the political culture of the nation. The influence of both abolitionist (of moderate and radical hues) and proslavery discourses, that had their origins in the pre–Civil War era was marked, but there was also a new conception of the changing definition of slavery in a global context. In both domestic and global situations, it was difficult for commentators to overcome the era’s pervasive racial and gender ideologies, meaning that during this period even antislavery discourse had a strongly conservative, reactionary tone and message. However, radical antislavery rhetoric increasingly became a part of the intellectual world of the early twentieth century, challenging traditional hierarchies and, in some cases, the entire capitalist system itself.

This chapter examines the many contexts influencing US responses to global slavery, including the British anti-slavery colonial model, attempts to forge the US imperial destiny in the Pacific and Africa, and a global labour market, which blurred the distinctions between free and forced movement of workers.

This chapter examines the myriad ways that authors subverted the post-bellum slavery narrative - employing, variously, Marxist ideas, pan-Africanism and non-racially motivated anti-imperialist rhetoric. It shows that the rhetorical processes through which slaves and slave owners had been othered were challenged and an alternative vision of anti-slavery was offered.

This chapter shows how nascent racially motivated imperialism led to the othering of the enslaved, both within the US as a tool of social control of labour, to justify immigration restrictions on so-called ‘coolies’, and also in order to position the nation alongside European powers in the colonial struggles for parts of the Middle East and Africa. The edges of the definition of slavery was fought over by those arguing that forced labour was the only valid way of eliciting productive labour from uncivilized natives.

This book will examine the interplay of various factors that influenced American perceptions of slavery and other forms of unfree, coerced or forced labour in the period after the emancipation of slaves within its own borders. It argues that while, undoubtedly, the shadow of antebellum chattel slavery loomed large in the American imagination, as influential was the model of imperial antislavery practised by European powers, especially after the United States itself developed an overseas empire in the 1890s. However, representations of slavery were not only a battleground on a geopolitical level. They were also used to work out the significance of competing scientific racial ideas, and also became a way for more radical thinkers to express their distaste for such ideas, while proposing new and more broad approaches to labour problems. Abolitionists were far from simplistic humanitarians and often their approach to the problem of slavery was a pragmatic one, designed as much to maintain control and hegemonic order as to give equal rights and opportunities to the world’s poorest.

The concept of the ‘world’ has changed dramatically over the centuries. The world is perceived through current boundaries and limits, so the concept in classical times was very different to that of today. When trying to interpret this changing understanding, we use the term ‘known world’ to contextualize the conceptual boundaries of a particular era. More recent conceptions consider the entire world, our globe, as a holistic entity. In the twenty-first century, a global imagination, suggesting a shared vision of identity, freedom and movement, is often discussed and has emerged. World travel genuinely means that we have the potential to move outside our own national boundaries to any country in the world, and even to the most climactically hostile regions. But we have to consider the start point of the traveller. Some travel literature, especially in the past, has tended to be euro-centric and therefore its focus on the world was connected to particular cultural and ideological viewpoints, identifying the ‘other’ as elsewhere, as outside Europe.

One method of imagining the world has been to render it visually, in maps and atlases (see cartography). Looking back on these historic depictions of the thenknown-world we can understand how the limits of that world changed. For example, in medieval mappae mundi, the known world included real places alongside mythical sites such as the Garden of Eden. The distinction between physical and spiritual realms was understood very differently. Maps at this time also included many illustrations depicting the animals (some mythological) that might be found (see nature). A transition phase during the early modern period saw maps reflect the findings of navigators and explorers and these maps were collected into beautifully illustrated atlases for the first time, such as Abraham Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (‘the theatre of the world’) printed in Antwerp in 1570. During this period, exploration and navigation flourished, not only by the Europeans in the Atlantic World but also in the Indian Ocean, and by the Chinese globally. Maps incorporated the latest knowledge and often became obsolete quickly. It is during this period, in 1503, that the term ‘New World’ was coined to describe the continents of North and South America and the Caribbean Islands by explorer Amerigo Vespucci.

If we take it in its broadest sense, nature or the natural world refers to the multifarious physical environment around us. It is often contrasted with man-made phenomena, such as settlements or individual homes, or to our attempts to control the environment such as dams. Nature is strongly linked to travel, as a motivation for travellers, as a key part of travellers’ observations and as a theme in travel literature. The desire to undertake scientific research into the natural world has been a motivating factor for travellers since the seventeenth century (see science). Scientific organizations such as the Royal Society in England encouraged travellers to record their observations of the natural world so that it might be measured, catalogued, understood and perhaps tamed. As early as 1620, Francis Bacon wrote a guide suggesting how travellers might structure their accounts so as to record the most useful information. However, this was also accompanied by a utilitarian understanding of the natural world. Early modern thinking determined that all animals and plants were on earth for man's use and improvement. The idea of conserving the natural world for its own sake would have seemed alien during this period. Instead, natural resources were used to nearextinction, as in the case of the North American beaver on the East coast. One of the most influential works of natural history was Mark Catesby's published in 1734. Catesby believed that ‘London was the centre of all science’, but he also realized the importance of travelling to America to observe ‘as well the animal and vegetable productions in their native countries which were strangers to England’. Catesby (1754, v) wanted to view this wildlife in situ because he could then make observations ‘shewing their several mechanical and other uses as in building, joynery, agriculture and others used for food and medicine’.

The third strand in travellers’ understanding of nature was a religious and spiritual one. Christians in the early modern period believed that the natural world and its climactic phenomenon were evidence of the providence of God. Therefore, a hurricane or an earthquake occurred, or disease was spread because God was displeased with his people. Only through penitential acts such as fasting could these phenomena be prevented from happening again. This religious understanding of the natural world impacted on travellers such as the Puritan migrants to New England in the 1630s (see migration).