No Bond But the Law: Punishment, Race, and Gender in Jamaican State Formation, 1780-1870. DIANA PATON, Durham: Duke University Press, 2004.

Abstract

This is a smart and sobering book. It reminds us of the central role of violence and coercion which lay at the heart of state formation, the transition from slavery to "free" labor, and colonial rule. Taking a somber step back from social history's sometimes triumphalist emphasis on resistance, Diana Paton takes her readers to the cracking of whips, the dank cells of gaol houses, the groaning turning of the often bloody tread mill, and the brutal labor of prison gangs which haunted the lives of slaves, "apprentices", and freed people alike. She quite deliberately avoids sensationalistic descriptions, instead producing an apparently dispassionate account, fueled by a deep undercurrent of rage.