Gothic slavery (Jamaican slave revolts in the Gothic literary imagination, 1789-1834)

Gothic slavery examines how the Gothic became a key mode for representing slavery, rebellion and emancipation in the transatlantic Age of Revolution. Focusing on British and Black Atlantic writing between 1789 and 1834, the book traces how Gothic tropes—imprisonment, persecution, haunted landscapes and demonic figures—were deployed to articulate the violence of slavery and the uncertainties of reform. Through close readings of texts by Olaudah Equiano, Charlotte Smith, William Earle, John Thelwall, Matthew Lewis, Robert Wedderburn and Mary Prince, the study reveals tensions between abolitionist demands and gradualist visions of amelioration. It shows how Black Atlantic writers reworked the Gothic to challenge racialised representations of rebellion and to expose the lived realities of enslavement. By situating these works within revolutionary and imperial contexts, the book offers a new account of the Gothic’s role in shaping modern racial and political imaginaries.