Antislavery in the Dissenting Atlantic: Archives and Unquiet Libraries, 1776-1865

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.

Bridget Bennett is professor of American literature and culture at the University of Leeds and author of Transatlantic Spiritualism and Nineteenth-Century American Literature.