First published in 1958, West Indian Reports is a series of reports of cases decided in the High Courts and Courts of Appeal of the West Indian states and Privy Council appeals therefrom.Originally issued under the auspices of the West Indian States, they are now independently produced by Butterworths on a commercial basis which ensures their continued availability.The cases included in the reports are selected by a distinguished panel of Judge Editors and are published in two chargeable volumes per year. The series is also available on CD-ROM and on Butterworths’ online service to give the user swift and easy access to a vast range of cases and judgments plus all the added advantages of electronic delivery.

This book provides a legal historical insight into colonial laws on enslavement and the plantation system in the British West Indies. The volume is a work of comparative legal history of the English-speaking Caribbean which concentrates on how the laws of England served to catalyse the slavery laws and also legislation pertaining to post-emancipation societies. The book illustrates how these “borrowed” laws from England not only developed colonial slavery laws within the English-speaking Caribbean but also inspired the slavery codes of a number of North American plantation systems. The cusp of the work focuses on the interconnectivities among the English-speaking slave holding Atlantic and how persons, free and unfree, moved throughout the system and brought laws with them which greatly affected the various enslaved societies. The book will be essential reading for students and researchers interested in colonial slavery, Caribbean studies and Black and Atlantic history.