My research interests lie in the history of political thought, the political theory of empire, political economy, and the politics of the abolition of slavery. In my current research I develop a theory of capitalist abolitionism, which was a political-economic project that sought to abolish slavery and reproduce colonial capitalism. Through an interpretation of Alexis de Tocqueville's reflections on the abolition of colonial slavery and the French Empire, I show how capitalist abolitionists argued for using colonial primitive accumulation in order to ensure Black labor as the supply of labor-power in the plantations. These processes of extra-economic coercion reproduced racial categories in that they enacted a racial division of labor.