Antislavery in the Dissenting Atlantic

Archives and Unquiet Libraries, 1776–1865

by

Published April 9, 2025 by LSU Press.

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(1 review)

Bridget Bennett’s Antislavery in the Dissenting Atlantic explores the impact of a historically situated set of transatlantic networks, chiefly centered on prominent communities of religious nonconformists in England and Pennsylvania in the decades between the American Revolution and American Civil War. The study reveals the alliances forged out of progressive religious and political commitments to dissent that enabled expansive connections across the Atlantic world. These developments emerged from local proximities and combined an optimistic devotion to social justice and education with a global vision. Bennett’s work offers an original and innovative reading of transatlantic partnerships, exploring obscure writings, overlooked individuals, and the cultures of the everyday, while also affording fresh understandings of familiar antislavery texts.

2 editions

reviewed Antislavery in the Dissenting Atlantic by Bridget Bennett

A Tour Through the Archives

This is an interesting tour through the archives of the networks driving the transatlantic antislavery movement, with a lot of focus on the Quakers. Bennett goes into impressive detail here, deeply examining particular figures and tracing their activities, interactions, and the impact on resistance campaigns over the decades. This will mostly be of interest to people researching this space, as some of the sections are focused on minutiae that I'm sure is interesting to expert readers but is otherwise laborious to wade through. Still, given how little coverage non-US abolition activities get in most history books, this is an important resource.

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