Of Bondage

Debt, Property, and Personhood in Early Modern England

De: Amanda Bailey

Narrado por: Dana Roth

The late 16th-century penal debt bond, which allowed an unsatisfied creditor to seize the body of his debtor, set in motion a series of precedents that would shape the legal, philosophical, and moral issue of property-in-person in England and America for centuries. Focusing on this historical juncture at which debt litigation was not merely an aspect of society but seemed to engulf it completely, Of Bondage examines a culture that understood money and the body of the borrower as comparable forms of property that impinged on one another at the moment of default.

Amanda Bailey shows that the early modern theater, itself dependent on debt bonds, was well positioned to stage the complex ethical issues raised by a system of forfeiture that registered as a bodily event. While plays about debt like The Merchant of Venice and The Custom of the Country did not use the language of political philosophy, they were artistically and financially invested in exploring freedom as a function of possession. By revealing dramatic literature's heretofore unacknowledged contribution to the developing narrative of possessed persons, Amanda Bailey not only deepens our understanding of creditor-debtor relations in the period but also sheds new light on the conceptual conditions for the institutions of indentured servitude and African slavery. Of Bondage is vital not only for students and scholars of English literature but also for those interested in British and colonial legal history, the history of human rights, and the sociology of economics.

The book is published by University of Pennsylvania Press.

"A compelling account of the role of debt in the early modern imaginary...raises important historical questions." (Sixteenth Century Journal)

"Absorbing and beautifully written." (Jonathan Gil Harris, George Washington University)

©2013 University of Pennsylvania Press (P)2019 Redwood Audiobooks

Owning and owing: what, in us, could be traded?

That is the deepest question always floating behind this work. And for that, and some great bits of related history, four stars. The author understands the language of credit and law, historically and now, and the arts, too. Then, she uses a freedom to range across borders between disciplines while constantly mapping out the tricky relationship between the legal at the personal-behavioral. The word-play and concept-play are whip-smart. The language might be called high-academic, but seeing beyond this, AND giving a careful listening (given a strong vocabulary going in) , to the originality and value here will pay off. This book follows somewhat along lines laid down by David Graeber in Debt: the First 5,000 Years, which similarly has interesting ideas and history tidbits, alongside (what I see as some of Graeber's) sometimes-dubious assumptions and characterizations. But this book manages to keep a more (I think) calm, neutral and disciplined approach and tone and manages to be enlightening, whatever your biases or mine may be. How do the legal formations of promises map and link into our behaviors, our bodies? If we own our bodies and labors, what parts of these things can be pledged, alienated, sold in advance, made into tradeable bonds? What are the values of these intangible things?
This book has plenty to provoke thought, and moment to moment, shows sparkles of insightful brilliance. I like the quotes of laws and contracts. It covers ground much debated long ago but to many, obscure now. This book is not simply about theater and long-ago days, and musty old laws more cavalier about pledging and trading bodies and body parts. It is about what we as creative people will shape into the credit markets of the future. It is about things technology (legal-social and otherwise) will make possible to us to unlock, create and trade value.