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The Lost Continent; or, Slavery and the Slave-trade in Africa, 1875. With observations on the Asiatic Slave-trade, carried on under the name of the labour traffic, and some other subjects

Un continent perdu, ou, L'esclavage et la traite en Afrique (1875): avec quelques observations sur la manière dont ils se pratiquent en Asie et dans d'autres contrées sous le nom de système contractuel de la main-d'oeuvre (Paris: Hachette, 1876). French.

Friends House Library, London. Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature, University of London. Rhodes House, Oxford. British Library.

Slavery Africa Lost Continent East Slave Trade World Traffic Abolition

Published in 1875 by the abolitionist Joseph Cooper, this short text gives an overview of slavery around the world, particularly in East Africa, in order to encourage the "intense amount of popular feeling" (vii) generated in Britain by the travel writings of Livingstone, Sir Bartle Frère etc. Cooper stresses Europe's responsibility to intervene not only in the slave routes from Africa, but also in the demand for slaves in the burgeoning markets of North Africa, the Middle East and the Indian Ocean.

The Lost Continent contains chapters on the following subjects: slavery in Turkey and Egypt, Afghanistan, Madagascar and Zanzibar, Mozambique, Brazil, Chinese immigration in the Americas, contract labour in Fiji, the Polynesian islands, and Australia, slavery in Cuba, Livingstone and missionaries in Africa, Indonesia etc. It cites a number of sources - letters, newspapers, travel writings and other abolitionist texts (including Augustin Cochin on slavery in the Spanish colonies). It also contains appendices, including the texts of the Vienna and Verona treaties in French, and information regarding slavery and the Koran.