Introduction: The historiography of slavery in the Danish-Norwegian West Indies,c. 1950-2016.

This introduction to the special issue ‘Slavery, Servitude and Freedom in the Danish-Norwegian West Indies, 1672–1848’, edited by Niklas Thode Jensen and Vibe Maria Martens, situates the five essays in the issue in the framework provided by previous research. It begins with a historiographical overview of research carried out since c. 1950 concerning Caribbean and Danish-Norwegian West Indian racial slavery, and continues to locate the essays within this field and its recent historiographical trends. The introduction ends with a brief overview of the history of the Danish-Norwegian and later the Danish West Indies to provide the general context for the five essays.