This wide-ranging and convincingly argued study looks at the issues of
and attitudes towards slavery in Jane Austen's later novels and culture,
and argues against Edward Said's critique of Jane Austen as a supporter
of colonialism and slavery. White suggests that Austen is both concerned
and engaged with the issue, and that novels such as Mansfield Park, Emma
and Persuasion not only presuppose the British outlawing of the
transatlantic slave trade but also undermine the status quo of chattel
slavery, slavery's most extreme form.