James MacQueen (1778-1870) was a British geographer and also one of the most outspoken critics of the methods of the British anti-slavery campaign in the 1820s and 1830s. Although he never visited Africa, he became an acknowledged expert on the continent, through reading all available accounts, ancient and modern, as well as interviewing slave merchants while managing a sugar plantation in the West Indies. This work was published in 1840, and was aimed at assisting the expansion of colonial trading interests. In the preface he is critical of the efficacy of British attempts to eradicate the slave trade, and also of the ill-preparedness and often fatal ignorance of many explorers. He believed that with better information and planning, European involvement in Africa could be much more effective, and that the slave trade could be better reduced by the work of missionaries and by increased trade than by military intervention.
- ISBN13 9781108031264
- Publish Date 19 May 2011 (first published 18 November 2009)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Cambridge University Press
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 432
- Language English