HEATHER DALTON
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197265208
- eISBN:
- 9780191754180
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265208.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History
In 1541, Roger Barlow, an English merchant who had traded with Spain's Atlantic settlements from Seville in the 1520s, presented Henry VIII with a cosmography containing his personal account of the ...
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In 1541, Roger Barlow, an English merchant who had traded with Spain's Atlantic settlements from Seville in the 1520s, presented Henry VIII with a cosmography containing his personal account of the Rio de la Plata, inserted into an English translation of the 1519 edition of the Suma de Geographia by Martin Fernandez de Enciso. Despite the fact that both men had been involved in the buying and selling of West African slaves, Barlow translated Enciso's short description of the slave markets in Guinea without comment. This chapter explores how the trading network of English, Spanish and Genoese merchants Barlow belonged to had traded in slaves and associated products, such as pearls and sugar, since the 1480s. In doing so, they were instrumental in linking the ‘Guinea of Cape Verde’ to the wider Atlantic world.Less
In 1541, Roger Barlow, an English merchant who had traded with Spain's Atlantic settlements from Seville in the 1520s, presented Henry VIII with a cosmography containing his personal account of the Rio de la Plata, inserted into an English translation of the 1519 edition of the Suma de Geographia by Martin Fernandez de Enciso. Despite the fact that both men had been involved in the buying and selling of West African slaves, Barlow translated Enciso's short description of the slave markets in Guinea without comment. This chapter explores how the trading network of English, Spanish and Genoese merchants Barlow belonged to had traded in slaves and associated products, such as pearls and sugar, since the 1480s. In doing so, they were instrumental in linking the ‘Guinea of Cape Verde’ to the wider Atlantic world.
David Richardson
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198205630
- eISBN:
- 9780191676710
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198205630.003.0020
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, British and Irish Modern History
In 1660–1807, the British were the pre-eminent slave traders of the western hemisphere. The growth of British slaving activity between 1660 and 1807 was accompanied by major changes in its ...
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In 1660–1807, the British were the pre-eminent slave traders of the western hemisphere. The growth of British slaving activity between 1660 and 1807 was accompanied by major changes in its organization. The most obvious changes occurred in the way in which voyages were financed and managed and in patterns of investment in the trade among British and British colonial ports. There were also changes in the internal structure of the firms that came to dominate British slaving and in the relationship of individual ports to the trade. The profits that the British earned from the Atlantic slave trade have been the subject of much debate. The impact of the slave trade on Britain’s economy was not simply confined to its effects on capital investment. Its effects were, arguably, much wider.Less
In 1660–1807, the British were the pre-eminent slave traders of the western hemisphere. The growth of British slaving activity between 1660 and 1807 was accompanied by major changes in its organization. The most obvious changes occurred in the way in which voyages were financed and managed and in patterns of investment in the trade among British and British colonial ports. There were also changes in the internal structure of the firms that came to dominate British slaving and in the relationship of individual ports to the trade. The profits that the British earned from the Atlantic slave trade have been the subject of much debate. The impact of the slave trade on Britain’s economy was not simply confined to its effects on capital investment. Its effects were, arguably, much wider.
Anne Haour
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264782
- eISBN:
- 9780191754012
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264782.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History
The trans-Atlantic trade that brought slaves from the African continent to the New World has generated such interest and controversy that it has tended to obscure another significant African slave ...
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The trans-Atlantic trade that brought slaves from the African continent to the New World has generated such interest and controversy that it has tended to obscure another significant African slave trade, that which saw individuals sent across the Sahara to be sold in North Africa and Western Asia. This trans-Saharan trade was both longer-lived and, in terms of numbers eventually enslaved, demographically similar to the better-known trans-Atlantic trade. This chapter summarizes current understandings of the trans-Saharan slave trade for the period ad 750–1500 approximately, and assesses the prospects for its archaeological recognition. A second topic will be to suggest the merits of a comparative approach considering the impact of slave trading on social and political frameworks: the argument here is that a consideration of wider themes can bring us closer to understanding roots and causes, invalidating the convenient assumption that the Atlantic slave trade was a historical curiosity which can be safely consigned to the annals of the past.Less
The trans-Atlantic trade that brought slaves from the African continent to the New World has generated such interest and controversy that it has tended to obscure another significant African slave trade, that which saw individuals sent across the Sahara to be sold in North Africa and Western Asia. This trans-Saharan trade was both longer-lived and, in terms of numbers eventually enslaved, demographically similar to the better-known trans-Atlantic trade. This chapter summarizes current understandings of the trans-Saharan slave trade for the period ad 750–1500 approximately, and assesses the prospects for its archaeological recognition. A second topic will be to suggest the merits of a comparative approach considering the impact of slave trading on social and political frameworks: the argument here is that a consideration of wider themes can bring us closer to understanding roots and causes, invalidating the convenient assumption that the Atlantic slave trade was a historical curiosity which can be safely consigned to the annals of the past.
Kenneth G. Kelly
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264782
- eISBN:
- 9780191754012
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264782.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History
This chapter explores the impacts of the Atlantic slave trade between Africa and the European settlements of the New World on two settings along the West African coast. The Atlantic slave trade ...
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This chapter explores the impacts of the Atlantic slave trade between Africa and the European settlements of the New World on two settings along the West African coast. The Atlantic slave trade engaged societies ranging from complexly organised ‘states’ to loosely organised societies based on diverse local leadership. The chapter discusses archaeological investigations of one complex setting, that of the seventeenth- to nineteenth-century Hueda and Dahomey societies of the Bight of Benin, and contrasts those findings with preliminary results from the nineteenth-century sites along the Rio Pongo, Guinea, where the slave trade was conducted by a range of societies of less complex organisation. These investigations demonstrate that the specific responses of local African people to the Atlantic slave trade were highly variable.Less
This chapter explores the impacts of the Atlantic slave trade between Africa and the European settlements of the New World on two settings along the West African coast. The Atlantic slave trade engaged societies ranging from complexly organised ‘states’ to loosely organised societies based on diverse local leadership. The chapter discusses archaeological investigations of one complex setting, that of the seventeenth- to nineteenth-century Hueda and Dahomey societies of the Bight of Benin, and contrasts those findings with preliminary results from the nineteenth-century sites along the Rio Pongo, Guinea, where the slave trade was conducted by a range of societies of less complex organisation. These investigations demonstrate that the specific responses of local African people to the Atlantic slave trade were highly variable.
Seymour Drescher
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814740910
- eISBN:
- 9780814786796
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814740910.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: Civil War
This chapter examines the role of Jews and New Christians in the Atlantic slave trade. It discusses the three phases of the African slave trade, each succeeding phase numerically larger than its ...
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This chapter examines the role of Jews and New Christians in the Atlantic slave trade. It discusses the three phases of the African slave trade, each succeeding phase numerically larger than its predecessor. In the century and a half of the first phase (1500–1640), nearly 800,000 Africans embarked on the “Middle Passage.” During the course of the second phase (1640–1700), 817,000 left Africa. In the final phase, between 1700 and British abolition in 1807, 6,686,000 were exported. This means that four out of every five Africans transported to the New World between 1500 and 1807 were boarded in the final phase. This chapter also considers how the slave trade opened up transoceanic niches of entrée and refuge that gave New Christians an initial advantage in human capital over other merchants. It also suggests that Jewish merchants were marginal collective actors in most places and during most periods of the Atlantic system: its political and legal foundations; its capital formation; its maritime organization; and its distribution of coerced migrants from Europe and Africa.Less
This chapter examines the role of Jews and New Christians in the Atlantic slave trade. It discusses the three phases of the African slave trade, each succeeding phase numerically larger than its predecessor. In the century and a half of the first phase (1500–1640), nearly 800,000 Africans embarked on the “Middle Passage.” During the course of the second phase (1640–1700), 817,000 left Africa. In the final phase, between 1700 and British abolition in 1807, 6,686,000 were exported. This means that four out of every five Africans transported to the New World between 1500 and 1807 were boarded in the final phase. This chapter also considers how the slave trade opened up transoceanic niches of entrée and refuge that gave New Christians an initial advantage in human capital over other merchants. It also suggests that Jewish merchants were marginal collective actors in most places and during most periods of the Atlantic system: its political and legal foundations; its capital formation; its maritime organization; and its distribution of coerced migrants from Europe and Africa.
Herbert Klein
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807828755
- eISBN:
- 9781469603667
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807895627_schwartz.11
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
By examining the Atlantic slave trade in the period prior to 1650, this chapter argues that despite its synchrony with the rise of sugar production, the slave trade evolved independently of the ...
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By examining the Atlantic slave trade in the period prior to 1650, this chapter argues that despite its synchrony with the rise of sugar production, the slave trade evolved independently of the expansion of the sugar economy. It describes the purchase of African slaves from European ships, including the high mortality of slaves in Atlantic slave trade voyages. Since data from this early period is admittedly difficult to obtain, the relative significance of the slave trade to the early sugar industry is considerably more problematic than has been previously thought.Less
By examining the Atlantic slave trade in the period prior to 1650, this chapter argues that despite its synchrony with the rise of sugar production, the slave trade evolved independently of the expansion of the sugar economy. It describes the purchase of African slaves from European ships, including the high mortality of slaves in Atlantic slave trade voyages. Since data from this early period is admittedly difficult to obtain, the relative significance of the slave trade to the early sugar industry is considerably more problematic than has been previously thought.
Benjamin N. Lawrance
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780300198454
- eISBN:
- 9780300210439
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300198454.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This chapter employs the journeys of Amistad's orphans as a vehicle to distinguish myth from reality as part of investigating the complexity of child mobility in the nineteenth-century Atlantic ...
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This chapter employs the journeys of Amistad's orphans as a vehicle to distinguish myth from reality as part of investigating the complexity of child mobility in the nineteenth-century Atlantic world. It presents two arguments. First, the adult journeying narratives overshadow the complexity of children's mobility in relation to the illicit Atlantic nineteenth-century slave trade. Second, the histories of child mobility occupy discrete spaces, such as serving in a ship's crew or unaccompanied migration. The journeying of Amistad's orphans, as situated by the mobility of other Atlantic Africans and statistical data from slave-trading vessels, illustrates how children traveled and moved in ways that were often concealed by adult movements.Less
This chapter employs the journeys of Amistad's orphans as a vehicle to distinguish myth from reality as part of investigating the complexity of child mobility in the nineteenth-century Atlantic world. It presents two arguments. First, the adult journeying narratives overshadow the complexity of children's mobility in relation to the illicit Atlantic nineteenth-century slave trade. Second, the histories of child mobility occupy discrete spaces, such as serving in a ship's crew or unaccompanied migration. The journeying of Amistad's orphans, as situated by the mobility of other Atlantic Africans and statistical data from slave-trading vessels, illustrates how children traveled and moved in ways that were often concealed by adult movements.
Christy Clark-Pujara
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781479870424
- eISBN:
- 9781479822898
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479870424.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This chapter explain how the business of slavery encouraged the emergence of slavery. Prior to the pursuit of commerce in the Atlantic economy, Rhode Islanders sought to restrict and even ban ...
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This chapter explain how the business of slavery encouraged the emergence of slavery. Prior to the pursuit of commerce in the Atlantic economy, Rhode Islanders sought to restrict and even ban slaveholding; however, once they began to participate in the West Indian and Atlantic slave trades, they wrote slavery into law. By the 1730s, merchants, slave traders, farmers, distillers, and manufacturers had created a niche for themselves in the Atlantic economy, and a series of racist laws served the needs of a local economy deeply entrenched in the West Indian and Atlantic slave trades. Moreover, the more dominant Rhode Islanders became in the slave trade, the more they relied on slave labor. Slave law in the colony also buttressed the business of slavery by explicitly protecting the property rights of slaveholders. Furthermore, these laws elevated all whites to the enslaver class, as it required them to supervise all slaves; at the same time, those laws relegated people of color to the status of dependents or potential dependents. The business of slavery in Rhode Island shaped not only the economy but also social standing and race relations.Less
This chapter explain how the business of slavery encouraged the emergence of slavery. Prior to the pursuit of commerce in the Atlantic economy, Rhode Islanders sought to restrict and even ban slaveholding; however, once they began to participate in the West Indian and Atlantic slave trades, they wrote slavery into law. By the 1730s, merchants, slave traders, farmers, distillers, and manufacturers had created a niche for themselves in the Atlantic economy, and a series of racist laws served the needs of a local economy deeply entrenched in the West Indian and Atlantic slave trades. Moreover, the more dominant Rhode Islanders became in the slave trade, the more they relied on slave labor. Slave law in the colony also buttressed the business of slavery by explicitly protecting the property rights of slaveholders. Furthermore, these laws elevated all whites to the enslaver class, as it required them to supervise all slaves; at the same time, those laws relegated people of color to the status of dependents or potential dependents. The business of slavery in Rhode Island shaped not only the economy but also social standing and race relations.
Andrea Weindl
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300134360
- eISBN:
- 9780300151749
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300134360.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter focuses on the German slave traders who played, at most, a minor part in the history of the transatlantic slave trade. The ending of the Brandenburg slave trade came quite abruptly after ...
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This chapter focuses on the German slave traders who played, at most, a minor part in the history of the transatlantic slave trade. The ending of the Brandenburg slave trade came quite abruptly after 1700, not only because of financial constraints but also because the English and French chose to stop buying slaves from the Germans. German involvement in the Atlantic slave trade was always dependent on broader political and economic conjunctures, as the German states were unable to provide sufficient resources to promote trading companies on their own. Although the Germans did not play a major role in the slave trade, the history of their involvement, especially that of Brandenburg-Prussia, provides an interesting example of how smaller states tried to share this trade in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.Less
This chapter focuses on the German slave traders who played, at most, a minor part in the history of the transatlantic slave trade. The ending of the Brandenburg slave trade came quite abruptly after 1700, not only because of financial constraints but also because the English and French chose to stop buying slaves from the Germans. German involvement in the Atlantic slave trade was always dependent on broader political and economic conjunctures, as the German states were unable to provide sufficient resources to promote trading companies on their own. Although the Germans did not play a major role in the slave trade, the history of their involvement, especially that of Brandenburg-Prussia, provides an interesting example of how smaller states tried to share this trade in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Gwendolyn Midlo Hall
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807829738
- eISBN:
- 9781469605180
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807876862_hall.7
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Although Africa is a huge continent with many different peoples, only some of them were involved in the Atlantic slave trade. During the first two centuries of the Atlantic slave trade, few enslaved ...
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Although Africa is a huge continent with many different peoples, only some of them were involved in the Atlantic slave trade. During the first two centuries of the Atlantic slave trade, few enslaved Africans were collected east of Greater Senegambia/Upper Guinea all the way to the Slave Coast. This chapter seeks evidence of the clustering of African ethnicities in the Americas from Atlantic slave trade voyages as well as in their final destinations. It enumerates the factors clustering Africans from the same regions and ethnicities in the Americas, such as timing, traditional trading networks, and preferences for Africans by slave owners. The chapter also examines the clustering of African ethnicities in Louisiana during the course of the transshipment trade from the Caribbean.Less
Although Africa is a huge continent with many different peoples, only some of them were involved in the Atlantic slave trade. During the first two centuries of the Atlantic slave trade, few enslaved Africans were collected east of Greater Senegambia/Upper Guinea all the way to the Slave Coast. This chapter seeks evidence of the clustering of African ethnicities in the Americas from Atlantic slave trade voyages as well as in their final destinations. It enumerates the factors clustering Africans from the same regions and ethnicities in the Americas, such as timing, traditional trading networks, and preferences for Africans by slave owners. The chapter also examines the clustering of African ethnicities in Louisiana during the course of the transshipment trade from the Caribbean.
Gwendolyn Midlo Hall
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807829738
- eISBN:
- 9781469605180
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807876862_hall.6
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter attempts to make Africans, who played a crucial role in the formation of new cultures throughout the Americas, more visible. It discusses several studies of African diaspora in the ...
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This chapter attempts to make Africans, who played a crucial role in the formation of new cultures throughout the Americas, more visible. It discusses several studies of African diaspora in the Americas. Such studies can provide a better understanding of when particular African ethnicities started to become victims of the Atlantic slave trade, and of their final destinations in the Americas. The chapter also highlights the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, the best recent synthesis of the work of the quantification school of Atlantic slave trade studies.Less
This chapter attempts to make Africans, who played a crucial role in the formation of new cultures throughout the Americas, more visible. It discusses several studies of African diaspora in the Americas. Such studies can provide a better understanding of when particular African ethnicities started to become victims of the Atlantic slave trade, and of their final destinations in the Americas. The chapter also highlights the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, the best recent synthesis of the work of the quantification school of Atlantic slave trade studies.
Audra A. Diptee
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813034829
- eISBN:
- 9780813038414
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813034829.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
The history of the Atlantic slave trade is a history of human encounters. Relationships between blacks and whites under slavery may have been defined by “race” and “power,” but it was also defined by ...
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The history of the Atlantic slave trade is a history of human encounters. Relationships between blacks and whites under slavery may have been defined by “race” and “power,” but it was also defined by perception. In the final decades of the British slave trade, captive Africans not only made it onto British ships but also arrived in Jamaica in numbers unmatched in previous years. The expansion of the Jamaican plantation economy, for which the Haitian Revolution was a catalyst, required that more captive men, women, and children were to be caught, captured, and even killed if the increased demand for enslaved labor in Jamaica was to be met. Unfortunately, during this period, trading mechanisms on the African coast were already well established and easily facilitated the increased numbers of captives shipped to Jamaica.Less
The history of the Atlantic slave trade is a history of human encounters. Relationships between blacks and whites under slavery may have been defined by “race” and “power,” but it was also defined by perception. In the final decades of the British slave trade, captive Africans not only made it onto British ships but also arrived in Jamaica in numbers unmatched in previous years. The expansion of the Jamaican plantation economy, for which the Haitian Revolution was a catalyst, required that more captive men, women, and children were to be caught, captured, and even killed if the increased demand for enslaved labor in Jamaica was to be met. Unfortunately, during this period, trading mechanisms on the African coast were already well established and easily facilitated the increased numbers of captives shipped to Jamaica.
Gwendolyn Midlo Hall
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807829738
- eISBN:
- 9781469605180
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807876862_hall.5
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Slave trade and slavery have existed throughout the world for millennia. As the Atlantic slave trade began, slavery became associated with blacks, and antiblack racism became very powerful in Europe ...
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Slave trade and slavery have existed throughout the world for millennia. As the Atlantic slave trade began, slavery became associated with blacks, and antiblack racism became very powerful in Europe and the Americas. This chapter discusses the development of the Atlantic slave trade and its devastating impact on Africa. In particular, it looks at how the European powers imposed on Africa the financial cost, destruction, social disorganization, demoralization, and population loss caused by warfare and kidnapping Africans for enslavement.Less
Slave trade and slavery have existed throughout the world for millennia. As the Atlantic slave trade began, slavery became associated with blacks, and antiblack racism became very powerful in Europe and the Americas. This chapter discusses the development of the Atlantic slave trade and its devastating impact on Africa. In particular, it looks at how the European powers imposed on Africa the financial cost, destruction, social disorganization, demoralization, and population loss caused by warfare and kidnapping Africans for enslavement.
Gwendolyn Midlo Hall
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807829738
- eISBN:
- 9781469605180
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807876862_hall.8
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
The earliest Atlantic slave trade began in the Greater Senegambia. This region was an important source of African slaves, who were shipped to the Americas for the rest of the eighteenth century. This ...
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The earliest Atlantic slave trade began in the Greater Senegambia. This region was an important source of African slaves, who were shipped to the Americas for the rest of the eighteenth century. This chapter argues that people from the Greater Senegambia have made rich demographic and cultural contributions to many regions in the Americas, especially in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. It also discusses the slave trade voyages recorded between Greater Senegambia and the Americas in The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database. Records show that the United States was the most important place where Senegambians clustered after Europe legally entered the Atlantic slave trade.Less
The earliest Atlantic slave trade began in the Greater Senegambia. This region was an important source of African slaves, who were shipped to the Americas for the rest of the eighteenth century. This chapter argues that people from the Greater Senegambia have made rich demographic and cultural contributions to many regions in the Americas, especially in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. It also discusses the slave trade voyages recorded between Greater Senegambia and the Americas in The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database. Records show that the United States was the most important place where Senegambians clustered after Europe legally entered the Atlantic slave trade.
Benjamin N. Lawrance
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780300198454
- eISBN:
- 9780300210439
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300198454.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This book traces the lives of six African children in an attempt to demonstrate that the lived experiences of slave children are indeed recoverable, arguing that the role of African child slaves in ...
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This book traces the lives of six African children in an attempt to demonstrate that the lived experiences of slave children are indeed recoverable, arguing that the role of African child slaves in the illegal slave trade has been underestimated and their experiences misunderstood. A reassessment of the children's participation in the nineteenth-century Atlantic slave-trading networks reveals that the establishment of abolitionism marked the beginning of the child enslavement era. These six lives illustrate the broader experience of African child enslavement and mobility during the early to mid-nineteenth century, as well as the centrality of child mobility to the huge illegal trafficking enterprise supporting the nineteenth-century trans-Atlantic trade. The book shows how these six lives constitute an imagined Atlantic “slave ship family” born of fictional bond, molded by shared traumas, and united by a common goal of survival.Less
This book traces the lives of six African children in an attempt to demonstrate that the lived experiences of slave children are indeed recoverable, arguing that the role of African child slaves in the illegal slave trade has been underestimated and their experiences misunderstood. A reassessment of the children's participation in the nineteenth-century Atlantic slave-trading networks reveals that the establishment of abolitionism marked the beginning of the child enslavement era. These six lives illustrate the broader experience of African child enslavement and mobility during the early to mid-nineteenth century, as well as the centrality of child mobility to the huge illegal trafficking enterprise supporting the nineteenth-century trans-Atlantic trade. The book shows how these six lives constitute an imagined Atlantic “slave ship family” born of fictional bond, molded by shared traumas, and united by a common goal of survival.
Finn Fuglestad
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780190876104
- eISBN:
- 9780190943110
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190876104.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, African History
The monumental Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade database has its limitations. It tells us, however, that of the 12 million (or more) slaves embarked from Africa for America, around 2 million (or more) came ...
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The monumental Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade database has its limitations. It tells us, however, that of the 12 million (or more) slaves embarked from Africa for America, around 2 million (or more) came from the Slave Coast. Between 1696 and 1730 – that is, before the rise of Dahomey – one-third of all slaves came from the Slave Coast, which was then the leading African supplier. But under Dahomey, and much to the dismay of the new rulers, that coast lost its predominant position. A relative decline set in, as the heavy-handed methods of the new masters of the coast turned out to be counterproductive.Less
The monumental Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade database has its limitations. It tells us, however, that of the 12 million (or more) slaves embarked from Africa for America, around 2 million (or more) came from the Slave Coast. Between 1696 and 1730 – that is, before the rise of Dahomey – one-third of all slaves came from the Slave Coast, which was then the leading African supplier. But under Dahomey, and much to the dismay of the new rulers, that coast lost its predominant position. A relative decline set in, as the heavy-handed methods of the new masters of the coast turned out to be counterproductive.
Pilar Zabala
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780813034928
- eISBN:
- 9780813039626
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813034928.003.0008
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
This chapter focuses on the African roots of the Yucatan and provides fresh insights into the origins, arrival, and integration of Afro Caribs during the colonial period and into the evolving roles ...
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This chapter focuses on the African roots of the Yucatan and provides fresh insights into the origins, arrival, and integration of Afro Caribs during the colonial period and into the evolving roles of Afro-Yucatecans in the socioeconomic network of New Spain. It presents documentary evidence indicating that Mexico's “third root” (Africans and their descendants) can be traced to the early colonial period. They probably came to Mexico during that time and, more specifically, the Yucatan came together with the Spanish conquistadors. The trans-Atlantic slave trade, which began in the Antilles, predates the demographic collapse of the indigenous native populations of the Caribbean.Less
This chapter focuses on the African roots of the Yucatan and provides fresh insights into the origins, arrival, and integration of Afro Caribs during the colonial period and into the evolving roles of Afro-Yucatecans in the socioeconomic network of New Spain. It presents documentary evidence indicating that Mexico's “third root” (Africans and their descendants) can be traced to the early colonial period. They probably came to Mexico during that time and, more specifically, the Yucatan came together with the Spanish conquistadors. The trans-Atlantic slave trade, which began in the Antilles, predates the demographic collapse of the indigenous native populations of the Caribbean.
Daniel L. Schafer
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780813044620
- eISBN:
- 9780813046341
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813044620.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
Zephaniah Kingsley Jr., 1765–1843, was born in England, reared in Charleston, South Carolina during the American Revolution, and moved to British New Brunswick when his merchant father was banished ...
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Zephaniah Kingsley Jr., 1765–1843, was born in England, reared in Charleston, South Carolina during the American Revolution, and moved to British New Brunswick when his merchant father was banished with other Loyalists. He became a ship captain engaged in Atlantic commerce, buying sugar and coffee in the Caribbean and slaves in Africa, and exchanging British nationality for loyalty to the United States, Denmark, and Spain to enhance his trade. Abolition of the Atlantic slave trade prompted Kingsley to become a plantation and slave owner in Spanish East Florida, and an advocate of liberal manumission policies found in Spanish laws on race and slavery. Kingsley practiced the humane and patriarchal system of labor discussed in his monograph, A Treatise on the Patriarchal. Kingsley is also remembered for his unorthodox family. Although never married, he fathered children by several enslaved women on his plantation and lived with them in coterminous relationships that lasted for decades. Anta Majigeen Njaay, Kingsley’s only acknowledged “wife,” was of royal lineage in the Kingdom of Jolof in Senegal before being captured in a slave raid. The 1821 American annexation of Florida brought severe laws regulating slavery, banning emancipation, and threatening rights and freedoms of free persons of color. Kingsley responded by purchasing thirty thousand acres of land near Puerto Plata, Haiti (now the Dominican Republic), and establishing a thriving agricultural settlement. Between 1836 and 1840, his extended family and more than fifty slaves (emancipated) moved to this refuge. Descendants still live in the area.Less
Zephaniah Kingsley Jr., 1765–1843, was born in England, reared in Charleston, South Carolina during the American Revolution, and moved to British New Brunswick when his merchant father was banished with other Loyalists. He became a ship captain engaged in Atlantic commerce, buying sugar and coffee in the Caribbean and slaves in Africa, and exchanging British nationality for loyalty to the United States, Denmark, and Spain to enhance his trade. Abolition of the Atlantic slave trade prompted Kingsley to become a plantation and slave owner in Spanish East Florida, and an advocate of liberal manumission policies found in Spanish laws on race and slavery. Kingsley practiced the humane and patriarchal system of labor discussed in his monograph, A Treatise on the Patriarchal. Kingsley is also remembered for his unorthodox family. Although never married, he fathered children by several enslaved women on his plantation and lived with them in coterminous relationships that lasted for decades. Anta Majigeen Njaay, Kingsley’s only acknowledged “wife,” was of royal lineage in the Kingdom of Jolof in Senegal before being captured in a slave raid. The 1821 American annexation of Florida brought severe laws regulating slavery, banning emancipation, and threatening rights and freedoms of free persons of color. Kingsley responded by purchasing thirty thousand acres of land near Puerto Plata, Haiti (now the Dominican Republic), and establishing a thriving agricultural settlement. Between 1836 and 1840, his extended family and more than fifty slaves (emancipated) moved to this refuge. Descendants still live in the area.
Lisa A. Lindsay
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781469631127
- eISBN:
- 9781469631141
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469631127.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
Within months of his arrival in Liberia in 1853, Church Vaughan was able to undertake more of the rights and duties of citizenship than he ever had before. He trained and served with a militia; he ...
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Within months of his arrival in Liberia in 1853, Church Vaughan was able to undertake more of the rights and duties of citizenship than he ever had before. He trained and served with a militia; he received a land grant to establish his own homestead; and he was eligible to vote. Yet Vaughan spent less than three years in Liberia. What motivated him to leave? As this chapter details, Vaughan learned that settler society was in its own way as exclusive and exploitative as the one he had left behind in South Carolina. From the beginnings of American colonization, a series of military battles and lopsided treaties had either displaced local African peoples or else brought them under the “protection” of the Liberian administration, subject to the foreigners’ laws and unfavorable trading agreements. Liberia’s boosters described this process as bringing civilization, especially since one of their goals was to stop slave trading between local leaders and transatlantic purchasers. Yet Liberians’ use of indigenous labor for their own enterprises closely resembled slavery, as some contemporaries pointed out. When presented with the opportunity to leave Liberia—for a place reputed to be roiled by warfare and slave-trading, no less—Vaughan took it.Less
Within months of his arrival in Liberia in 1853, Church Vaughan was able to undertake more of the rights and duties of citizenship than he ever had before. He trained and served with a militia; he received a land grant to establish his own homestead; and he was eligible to vote. Yet Vaughan spent less than three years in Liberia. What motivated him to leave? As this chapter details, Vaughan learned that settler society was in its own way as exclusive and exploitative as the one he had left behind in South Carolina. From the beginnings of American colonization, a series of military battles and lopsided treaties had either displaced local African peoples or else brought them under the “protection” of the Liberian administration, subject to the foreigners’ laws and unfavorable trading agreements. Liberia’s boosters described this process as bringing civilization, especially since one of their goals was to stop slave trading between local leaders and transatlantic purchasers. Yet Liberians’ use of indigenous labor for their own enterprises closely resembled slavery, as some contemporaries pointed out. When presented with the opportunity to leave Liberia—for a place reputed to be roiled by warfare and slave-trading, no less—Vaughan took it.
Gwendolyn Midlo Hall
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807829738
- eISBN:
- 9781469605180
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807876862_hall.10
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
The Atlantic slave trade from the Bight of Biafra rose rapidly during the eighteenth century and continued well into the nineteenth century, bringing a significant number of slaves to Cuba. This ...
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The Atlantic slave trade from the Bight of Biafra rose rapidly during the eighteenth century and continued well into the nineteenth century, bringing a significant number of slaves to Cuba. This chapter explores when and what proportions of African ethnicities were shipped out of the Bight of Biafra. Since some ethnicities were shipped from more than one coast, descriptions of Africans in documents generated in the Americas can tell the proportions of ethnicities recorded among enslaved Africans in particular times and places in the Americas. There is strong evidence in these documents that the vast majority of Africans shipped from the Bight of Biafra were from the Igbo nation.Less
The Atlantic slave trade from the Bight of Biafra rose rapidly during the eighteenth century and continued well into the nineteenth century, bringing a significant number of slaves to Cuba. This chapter explores when and what proportions of African ethnicities were shipped out of the Bight of Biafra. Since some ethnicities were shipped from more than one coast, descriptions of Africans in documents generated in the Americas can tell the proportions of ethnicities recorded among enslaved Africans in particular times and places in the Americas. There is strong evidence in these documents that the vast majority of Africans shipped from the Bight of Biafra were from the Igbo nation.
