‘An essential contribution to understanding the legacy of slavery.’
– Publishers Weekly
‘A frequently unsettling counter-narrative to the congratulatory strand of abolitionist history.’
– New Statesman
‘Raises important issues too often ignored in the smug western narrative of slavery.’
– Spectator
‘This book will be celebrated as the first deep drill into emancipation legislations.... The architects of these legislations were skillful craftsmen who sought to build walls to contain the freedom they did not wish to create. It was intended to be a project of delusion and deception....[Black Ghost of Empire is] a massive contribution to the evidentiary basis for reparations. It shows that the enslaved blacks never surrendered; were never given the emancipation they demanded; never received the justice expected; and that their case for justice remains!’
- Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies