Italian Abolitionism in Late and Post Ottoman Libya (1890 – 1929)

This paper focuses on Italian abolitionism in Libya framing the actions of consular offices, Ottoman administration, colonial authority, Catholic missions and antislavery committees in a trans-imperial perspective. It investigates Italy’s imperialist strategies in the Mediterranean area through antislavery mobilization. After analyzing the importance of antislavery networks for Italian colonial purposes, it then discusses how abolitionism and antislavery actions affected enslaved people’s mobility in the central Mediterranean, focusing on the case of the mission for manumitted children in the outskirts of Benghazi and the (failed) project of its relocation to the Eritrean colony in 1910. This paper aims to assess not only the Italian antislavery activities carried out after the Anti-Slavery Conference of 1890 but also the persistence of slavery in Libya throughout the colonial period.