White Pacific: U.S. Imperialism and Black Slavery in the South Seas After the Civil War

Worldwide supplies of sugar and cotton were impacted as the US Civil War dragged on. New areas of production entered these markets, which required an increase in labor. In the rush to fill the vacuum, freebooters and others began a slave trade in Melanesians and Polynesians. This book reconstructs the history of slave trading in the region.