The Anti-Slavery Convention may have provided a clear date from which the trade in slaves was no longer permissible, but it left open wide- ranging and important questions about the nature of the trade in Egypt. It also created a very thick wall: on one side stood the British officials of the occupation, who were quickly coming to believe that a proslavery solidarity existed among the Muslims of Egypt, and that any Egyptian who supported the officials of the slave trade bureaus would be considered a traitor by other Egyptians. On the other side of the wall stood the majority of Egyp- tians, who saw slaves as closely connected to their households and often treated them as part of their families, and who believed that the more gen- tle domestic bondage of Egypt actually benefited the slaves themselves.

Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Coloni…, loc. 659