Seymour Drescher
Seymour Drescher argued, in his 1977 book Econocide, that Britain did not end the slave trade because it had become unprofitable. His argument ran the other way: abolition created the economic decline. That claim placed Drescher, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, at the center of a sustained historical debate. Born in the Bronx in 1934 to Polish Jewish parents and publishing since 1959, his career has ranged across two bodies of research. One concerns the economic history of Atlantic slavery. The other concerns Alexis de Tocqueville, and a dimension of his thought that had been waiting for closer examination.
Matthew Mancini, a Tocqueville scholar, called Drescher 'arguably the finest Tocqueville scholar writing in English.' That judgment rested on a specific contribution. Drescher was the first to direct serious scholarly attention to Tocqueville's views on poverty, colonial slavery, and race. Before his research, those dimensions of Tocqueville's writing had not attracted sustained academic scrutiny. His early career was built primarily around this material. He later turned toward the history of Atlantic slavery, a body of work that would bring him into direct confrontation with the historian Eric Williams.
Eric Williams had argued that the abolition of the British slave trade came partly in response to economic weakness. He pointed to the British West Indies, tracing a decline there back to 1775. In that reading, slavery was already losing its footing before it was formally ended. Drescher's research produced a different finding. He showed that the British West Indies economy, built on slavery, remained profitable up to 1815. That forty-year gap between Williams' proposed starting point and Drescher's end date became the crux of the debate. The book's title named what Drescher believed had happened: Econocide. The word implied that Britain had ended something still capable of generating returns. Drescher continued expanding on the argument in subsequent works, including Abolition: A History of Slavery and Antislavery, published by Cambridge University Press in 2009.
Ruth Drescher moved to Pittsburgh with her husband in 1962, and the city became the base for his entire academic career. In 2003, the Frederick Douglass Prize recognized the scope of his work on slavery and abolition. His published books from those years included Capitalism and Antislavery, from Oxford University Press in 1987. From Slavery to Freedom came from New York University Press in 1999. His 2002 book, The Mighty Experiment: Free Labor versus Slavery in British Emancipation, came from Cambridge University Press. In 2018, Drescher narrowly avoided becoming a victim of the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh.
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Common questions
Who is Seymour Drescher and where does he teach?
Seymour Drescher is an American historian born in 1934 in the Bronx, New York, and a professor at the University of Pittsburgh. He has been publishing since 1959 and received the Frederick Douglass Prize in 2003. His research covers two major areas: the thought of Alexis de Tocqueville and the history of slavery and abolition in the Atlantic world.
What is the central argument of Seymour Drescher's book Econocide?
Drescher argues in Econocide, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 1977, that Britain's abolition of the slave trade caused economic decline rather than responding to it. His research showed that the British West Indies economy remained profitable up to 1815, undermining the view that abolition was an economically rational response to decline. The title Econocide reflects his conclusion that Britain ended something still economically viable.
How did Seymour Drescher challenge Eric Williams' interpretation of British abolition?
Eric Williams argued that economic decline in the British West Indies after 1775 helped drive abolition of the British slave trade. Drescher countered that the British West Indies economy remained profitable up to 1815, a forty-year gap that challenged Williams' premise. The debate between the two positions has continued among historians since Econocide appeared in 1977.
What was Seymour Drescher's contribution to Tocqueville scholarship?
Drescher was the first historian to draw sustained scholarly attention to Alexis de Tocqueville's views on poverty, colonial slavery, and race. Tocqueville scholar Matthew Mancini has called Drescher 'arguably the finest Tocqueville scholar writing in English.' This early work predated his later focus on the economic history of Atlantic slavery and abolition.
What happened to Seymour Drescher during the Tree of Life Congregation shooting in 2018?
In 2018, Seymour Drescher narrowly avoided becoming a victim of the mass shooting at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh. He has lived and worked in Pittsburgh since moving there with his wife Ruth Drescher in 1962.
What are Seymour Drescher's major published books on slavery and abolition?
Drescher's major works include Econocide: British Slavery in the Era of Abolition (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1977), Capitalism and Antislavery (Oxford University Press, 1987), From Slavery to Freedom (New York University Press, 1999), The Mighty Experiment: Free Labor versus Slavery in British Emancipation (Cambridge University Press, 2002), and Abolition: A History of Slavery and Antislavery (Cambridge University Press, 2009).
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9 references cited across the entry
- 1Reframing History: Mass Incarceration : ThroughlineLawrence Wu — 3 September 2020
- 2BookAlexis de Tocqueville and American Intellectuals: From His Times to OursMatthew J. Mancini — Rowman and Littlefield — 2006
- 5NewsARTS BRIEFINGLawrence Van Gelder — 2003-10-30
- 6Britain's slave trade and the problem with 'decolonisation' The SpectatorNigel Biggar — 29 November 2020
- 7Interview with Seymour DrescherAnita Hecht (interviewer) — 28 October 2010