Of his text on "the only successful slave revolt in history", James writes: "I made up my mind that I would write a book in which Africans or people of African descent instead of constantly being the object of other peoples' exploitation and ferocity would themselves be taking action on a grand scale and shaping other people to their own needs".James (1980), p. v. James writes sceptically of British efforts to suppress the slave trade by using William Wilberforce as a figurehead. James asserts that the actual concern of the British was strategic, and that their humanitarian interest in abolishing slavery was in actuality a pragmatic interest, in that it undermined the French by crippling access to slave labour for France's most lucrative colonies.James, pp. 53–54, 2nd edition.
