The De Gruyter book series of the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies holds publications that examine different phenomena of slavery and other forms of strong asymmetrical dependencies in societies. The series follows the BCDSS research agenda in going beyond the dichotomy of slavery versus freedom. It proposes a new key concept, strong asymmetrical dependency, which covers all forms of bondage across time and space. This includes debt bondage, convict labor, tributary labor, servitude, serfdom, and domestic work, as well as forms of wage labor and various types of patronage.
Afrika – Atlantik – Amerika: Sklaverei und Sklavenhandel in Afrika, auf dem Atlantik und in den Amerikas sowie in Europa by Prof. Dr. Michael Zeuske :
This book centers on the Africa-Atlantic-Americas (AAA) system and its relationship with the complex structure of Atlantic slavery, regimes of slavery on land in Africa and America, enslavement and transport via land and water, and the slave trade in the Atlantic. The volume pays special attention to the South-South component as an essential factor in slavery and to the significance of the “AAA system” in the history of modernity and capitalism.
The Russian Empire, Slaving and Liberation, 1480–1725: Trans-Cultural Worldviews in Eurasia by Prof. Dr. Christoph Witzenrath:
The monograph realigns political culture and countermeasures against slave raids, which increased during the breakup of the Golden Horde. By physical defense of the open steppe border and by embracing the New Israel symbolism in which the exodus from slavery in Egypt prefigures the exodus of Russian captives from Tatar captivity, Muscovites found a defensive model to expand their empire. Recent scholarly debates on slaving are innovatively applied to Russian and imperial history, challenging entrenched perceptions of Muscovy.
The agenda will be uploaded in due course.