Lacy K. Ford, Jr.
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195118094
- eISBN:
- 9780199870936
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195118094.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This chapter details how the first short-staple cotton boom linked cotton profits, slavery, and territorial expansion in momentous ways. It examines South Carolina's contested decision to reopen the ...
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This chapter details how the first short-staple cotton boom linked cotton profits, slavery, and territorial expansion in momentous ways. It examines South Carolina's contested decision to reopen the African slave trade to meet the labor demands of the cotton boom and supply slaves to the nation's new purchase, Louisiana.Less
This chapter details how the first short-staple cotton boom linked cotton profits, slavery, and territorial expansion in momentous ways. It examines South Carolina's contested decision to reopen the African slave trade to meet the labor demands of the cotton boom and supply slaves to the nation's new purchase, Louisiana.
David N. Edwards
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264782
- eISBN:
- 9780191754012
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264782.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History
While it is commonly assumed that slavery, and especially an external slave trade, were significant features of the history of the earlier kingdoms in the Middle Nile, the evidence for this is less ...
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While it is commonly assumed that slavery, and especially an external slave trade, were significant features of the history of the earlier kingdoms in the Middle Nile, the evidence for this is less certain than the confident assertions of earlier scholars might suggest. Drawing on a range of archaeological and historical evidence, this chapter reassesses our current understanding of the development of slavery in this region in the medieval and post-medieval periods. Forms of slavery were clearly ever-present within the Middle Nile region during both periods, with slave taking likely a common practice on the margins of its early kingdoms. A significant external trade in slaves, however, is hard to demonstrate before the sixteenth century. Our perceptions of such a trade as a timeless and eternal feature of the history of the Nile Valley deserve closer scrutiny.Less
While it is commonly assumed that slavery, and especially an external slave trade, were significant features of the history of the earlier kingdoms in the Middle Nile, the evidence for this is less certain than the confident assertions of earlier scholars might suggest. Drawing on a range of archaeological and historical evidence, this chapter reassesses our current understanding of the development of slavery in this region in the medieval and post-medieval periods. Forms of slavery were clearly ever-present within the Middle Nile region during both periods, with slave taking likely a common practice on the margins of its early kingdoms. A significant external trade in slaves, however, is hard to demonstrate before the sixteenth century. Our perceptions of such a trade as a timeless and eternal feature of the history of the Nile Valley deserve closer scrutiny.
John Saillant
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195157178
- eISBN:
- 9780199834617
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195157176.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Lemuel Haynes was separated at birth from his parents, described in his lifetime as an African man and a white New England woman. Haynes matured as an indentured servant in Granville, Massachusetts, ...
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Lemuel Haynes was separated at birth from his parents, described in his lifetime as an African man and a white New England woman. Haynes matured as an indentured servant in Granville, Massachusetts, and served as a militiaman, a minuteman, and a soldier in the War of Independence. His essay, ”Liberty Further Extended” (1770s), attacked the slave trade and slavery. Like his contemporary Olaudah Equiano, Haynes was loyal to Calvinism. He studied with ministers of the New Divinity persuasion as he prepared for his ordination, which occurred in 1785.Less
Lemuel Haynes was separated at birth from his parents, described in his lifetime as an African man and a white New England woman. Haynes matured as an indentured servant in Granville, Massachusetts, and served as a militiaman, a minuteman, and a soldier in the War of Independence. His essay, ”Liberty Further Extended” (1770s), attacked the slave trade and slavery. Like his contemporary Olaudah Equiano, Haynes was loyal to Calvinism. He studied with ministers of the New Divinity persuasion as he prepared for his ordination, which occurred in 1785.
Ian Clark
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199297009
- eISBN:
- 9780191711428
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199297009.003.0010
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
The first part of the conclusion summarizes the findings from the historical cases. These fall into four categories. The first is where a strong world society constituency is able to influence the ...
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The first part of the conclusion summarizes the findings from the historical cases. These fall into four categories. The first is where a strong world society constituency is able to influence the policy of a leading state, or group of leading states, as in the case of the slave trade or social justice in 1919. In the second case, the same holds true, but it is actually the leading states that proactively encourage world society action, as with human rights at San Francisco. In the third case, as at The Hague, there was no specific state ‘norm entrepreneur’. Fourthly, there is the negative case where the state sponsor was not strong enough to have the norm accepted, as with Japan and racial equality in 1919. Theoretically, the argument points to a degree of normative assimilation between international and world society, and a corresponding degree of social integration. The relationship is one of complementariness rather than displacement. This develops English School discussions of the topic. However, there is a warning that past coalitions between world society groups and leading states — that seem to have stimulated humanitarian norms — could in the future promote less attractive norms.Less
The first part of the conclusion summarizes the findings from the historical cases. These fall into four categories. The first is where a strong world society constituency is able to influence the policy of a leading state, or group of leading states, as in the case of the slave trade or social justice in 1919. In the second case, the same holds true, but it is actually the leading states that proactively encourage world society action, as with human rights at San Francisco. In the third case, as at The Hague, there was no specific state ‘norm entrepreneur’. Fourthly, there is the negative case where the state sponsor was not strong enough to have the norm accepted, as with Japan and racial equality in 1919. Theoretically, the argument points to a degree of normative assimilation between international and world society, and a corresponding degree of social integration. The relationship is one of complementariness rather than displacement. This develops English School discussions of the topic. However, there is a warning that past coalitions between world society groups and leading states — that seem to have stimulated humanitarian norms — could in the future promote less attractive norms.
Paul Lane and Kevin C. MacDonald (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264782
- eISBN:
- 9780191754012
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264782.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History
The role and consequences of slavery in the history of Africa have been brought to the fore recently in historical, anthropological, and archaeological research. Public remembrances — such as ...
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The role and consequences of slavery in the history of Africa have been brought to the fore recently in historical, anthropological, and archaeological research. Public remembrances — such as Abolition 2007 in Great Britain, which marked the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act and which this book also commemorates — have also stimulated considerable interest. There is a growing realisation that enslavement, whether as part of a sliding scale of ‘rights in persons’ or due to acts of violence, has a history on the African continent that extends back in time long before the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The nature of such enslavement is obscured by the lack of resolution in historical sources before the middle of the second millennium ad. Ground-breaking archaeological research is now building models for approaching slave labour systems via collaboration with historians and the critical scrutiny of historical data. Generally, such new research focuses at the landscape scale; rather than attempting to find physical evidence of slavery per se, it assesses the settlement systems of slavery-based economies, and the depopulation and abandonment that followed from wars of enslavement. This book offers chapters on recent archaeological studies of slavery, slave resistance and its contemporary commemoration, alongside archaeological assessments of the economic, environmental, and political consequences of slave trading in a variety of historical and geographical settings.Less
The role and consequences of slavery in the history of Africa have been brought to the fore recently in historical, anthropological, and archaeological research. Public remembrances — such as Abolition 2007 in Great Britain, which marked the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act and which this book also commemorates — have also stimulated considerable interest. There is a growing realisation that enslavement, whether as part of a sliding scale of ‘rights in persons’ or due to acts of violence, has a history on the African continent that extends back in time long before the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The nature of such enslavement is obscured by the lack of resolution in historical sources before the middle of the second millennium ad. Ground-breaking archaeological research is now building models for approaching slave labour systems via collaboration with historians and the critical scrutiny of historical data. Generally, such new research focuses at the landscape scale; rather than attempting to find physical evidence of slavery per se, it assesses the settlement systems of slavery-based economies, and the depopulation and abandonment that followed from wars of enslavement. This book offers chapters on recent archaeological studies of slavery, slave resistance and its contemporary commemoration, alongside archaeological assessments of the economic, environmental, and political consequences of slave trading in a variety of historical and geographical settings.
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.
Don E. Fehrenbacher and Ward M. McAfee
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195158052
- eISBN:
- 9780199849475
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195158052.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
There is no evidence of Abel P. Upshur giving anything beyond perfunctory attention to the problem of the slave trade. Only after months of delay did he appoint Matthew C. Perry to command the ...
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There is no evidence of Abel P. Upshur giving anything beyond perfunctory attention to the problem of the slave trade. Only after months of delay did he appoint Matthew C. Perry to command the African squadron, and it was in August of 1843 when Perry arrived off Cape Mesurado, where he had cruised with the Shark twenty two years earlier. Upshur's instructions made it plain that the squadron's primary assignment was the protection of American commerce. Upshur put together an African squadron consisting of one frigate, two sloops-of-war, and one brigantine, only the last of which measured less than 500 tons. The squadron mounted a total of eighty-two guns and thus met the terms of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, but scarcely in a way calculated to maximize the American effort against the slave trade.Less
There is no evidence of Abel P. Upshur giving anything beyond perfunctory attention to the problem of the slave trade. Only after months of delay did he appoint Matthew C. Perry to command the African squadron, and it was in August of 1843 when Perry arrived off Cape Mesurado, where he had cruised with the Shark twenty two years earlier. Upshur's instructions made it plain that the squadron's primary assignment was the protection of American commerce. Upshur put together an African squadron consisting of one frigate, two sloops-of-war, and one brigantine, only the last of which measured less than 500 tons. The squadron mounted a total of eighty-two guns and thus met the terms of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, but scarcely in a way calculated to maximize the American effort against the slave trade.
MARIKA SHERWOOD
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197265208
- eISBN:
- 9780191754180
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265208.003.0016
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History
This chapter tries to find answers to some important questions regarding ‘legitimate trade’. While the 1807 Act made trading in enslaved Africans illegal, was it legitimate to trade in African ...
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This chapter tries to find answers to some important questions regarding ‘legitimate trade’. While the 1807 Act made trading in enslaved Africans illegal, was it legitimate to trade in African produce when produced by indigenous slaves and transported to the coast also by slaves? And how ‘legitimate’ was it to supply slave traders with everything from vessels to bank accounts and the manufactured goods exchanged for enslaved children, women and men? To examine these issues, the chapter examines the firm of Forster & Smith, trading with West Africa from the early 19th century, and their relationship with the colonial and National governments of Britain in the post-abolition era.Less
This chapter tries to find answers to some important questions regarding ‘legitimate trade’. While the 1807 Act made trading in enslaved Africans illegal, was it legitimate to trade in African produce when produced by indigenous slaves and transported to the coast also by slaves? And how ‘legitimate’ was it to supply slave traders with everything from vessels to bank accounts and the manufactured goods exchanged for enslaved children, women and men? To examine these issues, the chapter examines the firm of Forster & Smith, trading with West Africa from the early 19th century, and their relationship with the colonial and National governments of Britain in the post-abolition era.
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.
LINDA A. NEWSON
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197265208
- eISBN:
- 9780191754180
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265208.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History
In the context of debates about the definition and origins of globalisation and the role of African agency in the Atlantic slave trade, this chapter examines the commodities traded by Portuguese New ...
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In the context of debates about the definition and origins of globalisation and the role of African agency in the Atlantic slave trade, this chapter examines the commodities traded by Portuguese New Christian slave traders on the Upper Guinea coast in the early 17th century. Based on detailed account books of three slave traders discovered in the Inquisition section of the Archivo General de la Nación in Lima, Peru, it shows how Africans often determined the types and prices of goods exchanged and forced Europeans to adapt to local trade networks. Hence while commodities such as Indian textiles and beads reflected the position of the Portuguese slave traders in a global trading network, at the same time they were actively involved in trading locally produced cloth and beeswax as well as slaves.Less
In the context of debates about the definition and origins of globalisation and the role of African agency in the Atlantic slave trade, this chapter examines the commodities traded by Portuguese New Christian slave traders on the Upper Guinea coast in the early 17th century. Based on detailed account books of three slave traders discovered in the Inquisition section of the Archivo General de la Nación in Lima, Peru, it shows how Africans often determined the types and prices of goods exchanged and forced Europeans to adapt to local trade networks. Hence while commodities such as Indian textiles and beads reflected the position of the Portuguese slave traders in a global trading network, at the same time they were actively involved in trading locally produced cloth and beeswax as well as slaves.
MICHAEL W. TUCK
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197265208
- eISBN:
- 9780191754180
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265208.003.0013
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History
This chapter argues that it was the actions of many common people in West Africa that created the trade systems linking the Atlantic World and the Upper Guinea coast. On one hand, Africans of the ...
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This chapter argues that it was the actions of many common people in West Africa that created the trade systems linking the Atlantic World and the Upper Guinea coast. On one hand, Africans of the region were largely subsistence agriculturalists, but their need or desire for goods beyond what they could produce (or produce easily) led them to develop a commodity export trade. Important among these Africans were producers of non-slave commodities such as beeswax, which was exported from many locations along the coast but has not been the subject of study. The chapter traces the development of the beeswax export trade and the effects it had on local communities. In particular, it shows that as the slave trade grew to dominate commerce, the production and trade of beeswax by stateless people such as the Diola allowed them both to defend their communities from slave raiders and participate as raiders themselves.Less
This chapter argues that it was the actions of many common people in West Africa that created the trade systems linking the Atlantic World and the Upper Guinea coast. On one hand, Africans of the region were largely subsistence agriculturalists, but their need or desire for goods beyond what they could produce (or produce easily) led them to develop a commodity export trade. Important among these Africans were producers of non-slave commodities such as beeswax, which was exported from many locations along the coast but has not been the subject of study. The chapter traces the development of the beeswax export trade and the effects it had on local communities. In particular, it shows that as the slave trade grew to dominate commerce, the production and trade of beeswax by stateless people such as the Diola allowed them both to defend their communities from slave raiders and participate as raiders themselves.
David Eltis and David Richardson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300134360
- eISBN:
- 9780300151749
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300134360.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
This chapter presents a new assessment of the transatlantic slave trade, including the organization and publication of the massive amount of new data on slave-trade voyages, the production of ...
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This chapter presents a new assessment of the transatlantic slave trade, including the organization and publication of the massive amount of new data on slave-trade voyages, the production of accessible reference to summary statistics derived from these data, and sustained scholarly attention to several branches of the slave trade. The reassessment has been constructed around the national flags that slave traders used to cross the Atlantic. The Transatlantic Slave Trade: An Expanded and Online Database (TSTD2) permits a firmly rooted understanding of the relative importance of the Dutch in the transatlantic slave trade. The annual breakdowns for the participation of each national group across 350 years also provide a basis for estimating the departure of slaves from Africa and the arrival of slaves in the Americas. TSTD2 will shift attention away from the overall assessment of the slave trade and the thousands of ports that were involved in the business.Less
This chapter presents a new assessment of the transatlantic slave trade, including the organization and publication of the massive amount of new data on slave-trade voyages, the production of accessible reference to summary statistics derived from these data, and sustained scholarly attention to several branches of the slave trade. The reassessment has been constructed around the national flags that slave traders used to cross the Atlantic. The Transatlantic Slave Trade: An Expanded and Online Database (TSTD2) permits a firmly rooted understanding of the relative importance of the Dutch in the transatlantic slave trade. The annual breakdowns for the participation of each national group across 350 years also provide a basis for estimating the departure of slaves from Africa and the arrival of slaves in the Americas. TSTD2 will shift attention away from the overall assessment of the slave trade and the thousands of ports that were involved in the business.
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.
John O’brien
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226291123
- eISBN:
- 9780226291260
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226291260.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 18th Century and Early American Literature
The first abolitionist movement of the 1780s and 90s was aimed at breaking the power of what Thomas Clarkson called the “bodies of men,” the corporate entities that ran the transatlantic slave trade. ...
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The first abolitionist movement of the 1780s and 90s was aimed at breaking the power of what Thomas Clarkson called the “bodies of men,” the corporate entities that ran the transatlantic slave trade. Clarkson’s unconscious use of the metaphor of the body when talking about the trade in human bodies suggests a curious homology between the abolitionist movement and the slave trade. This chapter takes the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, founded by Clarkson and others, as a corporate body in its own right, one that took the form of the entities like the Royal African Company that it was attacking. Reading abolitionist texts by writers like Clarkson, William Cowper, Quobna Ottobah Cugoano, and Olaudah Equiano, the chapter worries the question of the extent to which the interest that such texts attempted to inspire in readers could be analogized to the corporate interest of those who aimed to profit from the slave trade.Less
The first abolitionist movement of the 1780s and 90s was aimed at breaking the power of what Thomas Clarkson called the “bodies of men,” the corporate entities that ran the transatlantic slave trade. Clarkson’s unconscious use of the metaphor of the body when talking about the trade in human bodies suggests a curious homology between the abolitionist movement and the slave trade. This chapter takes the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, founded by Clarkson and others, as a corporate body in its own right, one that took the form of the entities like the Royal African Company that it was attacking. Reading abolitionist texts by writers like Clarkson, William Cowper, Quobna Ottobah Cugoano, and Olaudah Equiano, the chapter worries the question of the extent to which the interest that such texts attempted to inspire in readers could be analogized to the corporate interest of those who aimed to profit from the slave trade.
Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780813056036
- eISBN:
- 9780813053806
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Florida
- DOI:
- 10.5744/florida/9780813056036.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
In November 1841, the U.S. slaver Creole transporting 135 slaves from Richmond to New Orleans was seized by nineteen slave rebels who steered the ship to the British Bahamas, where all secured their ...
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In November 1841, the U.S. slaver Creole transporting 135 slaves from Richmond to New Orleans was seized by nineteen slave rebels who steered the ship to the British Bahamas, where all secured their liberation. Drawing from this well-known story as a point of departure, this chapter examines the understudied maritime dimensions of British free soil policies in the nineteenth century, with a particular emphasis on how such policies affected the U.S. domestic slave trade and slave revolts at sea. In contrast to the more familiar narrative of south-to-north fugitive slave migration, this chapter sheds light on international south-to-south migration routes from the U.S. South to the circum-Caribbean.Less
In November 1841, the U.S. slaver Creole transporting 135 slaves from Richmond to New Orleans was seized by nineteen slave rebels who steered the ship to the British Bahamas, where all secured their liberation. Drawing from this well-known story as a point of departure, this chapter examines the understudied maritime dimensions of British free soil policies in the nineteenth century, with a particular emphasis on how such policies affected the U.S. domestic slave trade and slave revolts at sea. In contrast to the more familiar narrative of south-to-north fugitive slave migration, this chapter sheds light on international south-to-south migration routes from the U.S. South to the circum-Caribbean.
Stephanie Wynne-Jones
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197264782
- eISBN:
- 9780191754012
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264782.003.0014
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History
Tanzania's central caravan route, joining Lake Tanganyika to the East African coast, was an important artery of trade, with traffic peaking in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and associated ...
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Tanzania's central caravan route, joining Lake Tanganyika to the East African coast, was an important artery of trade, with traffic peaking in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and associated particularly with ivory, but also with the export of slaves. The central caravan route has recently been chosen as a focus for the memorialisation of the slave trade in eastern Africa, as part of a project headed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency in collaboration with the Antiquities Division of Tanzania, and in response to a wider UNESCO-sponsored agenda. Yet the attempt to memorialise slavery along this route brings substantial challenges, both of a practical nature and in the ways that we think about material remains. This chapter explores some of these challenges in the context of existing heritage infrastructure, archaeologies of slavery, and the development of the region for tourism. It highlights the need for a more nuanced archaeology of this route's slave heritage.Less
Tanzania's central caravan route, joining Lake Tanganyika to the East African coast, was an important artery of trade, with traffic peaking in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and associated particularly with ivory, but also with the export of slaves. The central caravan route has recently been chosen as a focus for the memorialisation of the slave trade in eastern Africa, as part of a project headed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency in collaboration with the Antiquities Division of Tanzania, and in response to a wider UNESCO-sponsored agenda. Yet the attempt to memorialise slavery along this route brings substantial challenges, both of a practical nature and in the ways that we think about material remains. This chapter explores some of these challenges in the context of existing heritage infrastructure, archaeologies of slavery, and the development of the region for tourism. It highlights the need for a more nuanced archaeology of this route's slave heritage.
LARRY GRAGG
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199253890
- eISBN:
- 9780191719806
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199253890.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter traces the frenzied efforts of planters to acquire a sufficient number of workers, free, indentured, or enslaved, particularly after they embraced the cultivation of sugar. Their ...
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This chapter traces the frenzied efforts of planters to acquire a sufficient number of workers, free, indentured, or enslaved, particularly after they embraced the cultivation of sugar. Their efforts, based on their experience with servitude in England, to define the status of red, white, and black workers and the leadership role of the English in the slave trade to Barbados are the central themes.Less
This chapter traces the frenzied efforts of planters to acquire a sufficient number of workers, free, indentured, or enslaved, particularly after they embraced the cultivation of sugar. Their efforts, based on their experience with servitude in England, to define the status of red, white, and black workers and the leadership role of the English in the slave trade to Barbados are the central themes.
David Richardson
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199290673
- eISBN:
- 9780191700569
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199290673.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This chapter focuses on the movement of Africans to America on British slave ships. The exact number of British ships that participated in the slave trade will probably never be known, but in the 245 ...
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This chapter focuses on the movement of Africans to America on British slave ships. The exact number of British ships that participated in the slave trade will probably never be known, but in the 245 years separating the first known English slaving voyage to Africa in 1562 and the abolition of the British slave trade in 1807, merchants in Britain despatched about 10,000 voyages to Africa for slaves, with merchants in other parts of the British empire perhaps fitting out a further 1,150 voyages. Altogether, the ships involved in these British and British empire voyages were responsible for carrying possibly 3.4 million or more enslaved Africans to the Americas, or one in three or four of all enslaved Africans entering the Atlantic slave trade during its history.Less
This chapter focuses on the movement of Africans to America on British slave ships. The exact number of British ships that participated in the slave trade will probably never be known, but in the 245 years separating the first known English slaving voyage to Africa in 1562 and the abolition of the British slave trade in 1807, merchants in Britain despatched about 10,000 voyages to Africa for slaves, with merchants in other parts of the British empire perhaps fitting out a further 1,150 voyages. Altogether, the ships involved in these British and British empire voyages were responsible for carrying possibly 3.4 million or more enslaved Africans to the Americas, or one in three or four of all enslaved Africans entering the Atlantic slave trade during its history.
PHILIP J. HAVIK
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197265208
- eISBN:
- 9780191754180
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265208.003.0015
- Subject:
- History, World Early Modern History
The attempt to establish plantation agriculture on the island of Bolama by British settlers in the early 1790s triggered a scramble for West Africa's resources in the Guinea Bissau region. The ...
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The attempt to establish plantation agriculture on the island of Bolama by British settlers in the early 1790s triggered a scramble for West Africa's resources in the Guinea Bissau region. The dispute and its eventual settlement in Portugal's favour in 1870 was to heighten the already tense Anglo-Portuguese relations as a result of the latter's resistance to the abolition of the slave trade. However, this territorial dispute has overshadowed the regional aspects of the island's settlement. Rather than being a mere object of European designs, the island was also the locus of rivalry between local trade lineages and African communities, and even the site of personal infighting due to their own particular dynamics. This chapter focuses on this local and regional momentum that continued regardless of the broader conflict, involving slaves, freed slaves, Christianised Africans, African migrants and trader-planters, producing distinct patterns of settlement and crop cultivation.Less
The attempt to establish plantation agriculture on the island of Bolama by British settlers in the early 1790s triggered a scramble for West Africa's resources in the Guinea Bissau region. The dispute and its eventual settlement in Portugal's favour in 1870 was to heighten the already tense Anglo-Portuguese relations as a result of the latter's resistance to the abolition of the slave trade. However, this territorial dispute has overshadowed the regional aspects of the island's settlement. Rather than being a mere object of European designs, the island was also the locus of rivalry between local trade lineages and African communities, and even the site of personal infighting due to their own particular dynamics. This chapter focuses on this local and regional momentum that continued regardless of the broader conflict, involving slaves, freed slaves, Christianised Africans, African migrants and trader-planters, producing distinct patterns of settlement and crop cultivation.
