Synopses & Reviews
In 1820, the slave ship was captured off the Florida coast. Though the slave trade was prohibited, slavery was still legal in half of the United States, and it was left to the Supreme Court to determine whether the nearly 300 Africans on board were considered slaves--and if so, to whom they belonged. Mining untapped archives, Jonathan M. Bryant recounts the 's fraught journey across the Atlantic, leading up to the momentous courtroom battle of 1825 that defined the moral and legal implications of slavery for a generation and was enormously influential in the trial. From Havana ports to the West African coast, from Georgia plantations to a Liberian settlement, creates a multidimensional portrait of the global slave trade. Bryant's work restores the to its rightful place as one of the most shocking and unjustly forgotten episodes in American legal history.
Review
" is a meticulously researched scholarly history that packs an emotional punch. Jonathan M. Bryant writes smoothly and unhurriedly in language fully accessible to the general reader. He relates the story behind a complicated and momentous case before the US Supreme Court, filling it with human interest and suspense. His sensitive characterizations of the actors in his narrative--pirates, lawyers, politicians, judges, and slaves--are worthy of a novel." Daniel Walker Howe, Pulitzer-prize-winning author of What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848
Review
"Jonathan Bryant sheds new and revealing light on a dark chapter in the history of American slavery, and on a Supreme Court decision that, despite its faults, deserves to be better known." Brian McGinty, author of Lincoln's Greatest Case
Review
"In this fascinating and engagingly written study, Jonathan M. Bryant illuminates a largely forgotten--but highly significant--episode in American legal history. Based on prodigious and meticulous research, will appeal to general readers and scholars alike. An important, original book." Marcus Rediker, author of The Amistad Rebellion
Review
"A richly documented work that restores the to its central place in the long, grim history of the Atlantic slave trade." Library Journal
Review
"From its poetic title to its concluding sentence, spins a riveting yarn, using the vexed voyage of the slave ship to illuminate a profound moment in American history. Vividly drawn characters and courtroom drama make this narrative history of a high order." Adam Rothman Washington Independent Review of Books
Review
"Bryant presents a broadened picture of the transatlantic slave trade while illuminating a legal battle with huge moral implications." Barbara Hoffert
Review
"Detailed and fascinating account.... This is a superb examination of an obscure but important episode in the struggle against slavery." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Besides providing a glimpse into the brutal and dangerous world of the slave trade, [Bryant] overhauls our view of numerous early American historical figures--not only Key but also John Marshall, James Madison, and John Quincy Adams.... In Bryant's gripping telling, the moral contradictions of the time are laid bare.... Carefully researched, beautifully crafted, --the title comes, ominously but evocatively, from Joseph Conrad's --is one of the very few books that delivers on the promiscuous promise to employ an obscure episode to offer new insights on a well-trod byway of history." David M. Shribman
Review
"Bryant masterfully narrates the incredible machinations revolving around the eventual case, which would drag on for seven years, and take a considerable toll on the captives awaiting a decision.... Epic in scope, providing rich portraits of life at sea and trade in the Atlantic world, slavery and its hazards in the malaria-ridden South, and the tension between the ethical and financial interests of a slew of chummy Southern gentlemen adjudicating the case, is an invaluable contribution to the understanding of antebellum America." David M. Shribman Boston Globe
Review
"Illuminating.... Fascinating...." David Reynolds
Review
"In Bryant's gripping telling, the moral contradictions of the time are laid bare.... Carefully researched, beautifully crafted, --the title comes, ominously but evocatively, from Joseph Conrad's --is one of the very few books that delivers on the promiscuous promise to employ an obscure episode to offer new insights on a well-trod byway of history." Wall Street Journal
Review
"An eye-opening account of a little-known (yet horrifying) episode in American history.... In , Bryant has salvaged the history of an era when black lives mattered to slavers only as profit and the dead were thrown to the sharks." Bobbi Booker Philadelphia Tribune
Synopsis
A dramatic work of historical detection illuminating one of the most significant--and long forgotten--Supreme Court cases in American history.
Synopsis
In 1820, a suspicious vessel was spotted lingering off the coast of northern Florida, the Spanish slave ship Antelope. Since the United States had outlawed its own participation in the international slave trade more than a decade before, the ship's almost 300 African captives were considered illegal cargo under American laws. But with slavery still a critical part of the American economy, it would eventually fall to the Supreme Court to determine whether or not they were slaves at all, and if so, what should be done with them.
Bryant describes the captives' harrowing voyage through waters rife with pirates and governed by an array of international treaties. By the time the Antelope arrived in Savannah, Georgia, the puzzle of how to determine the captives' fates was inextricably knotted. Set against the backdrop of a city in the grip of both the financial panic of 1819 and the lingering effects of an outbreak of yellow fever, Dark Places of the Earth vividly recounts the eight-year legal conflict that followed, during which time the Antelope's human cargo were mercilessly put to work on the plantations of Georgia, even as their freedom remained in limbo.
When at long last the Supreme Court heard the case, Francis Scott Key, the legendary Georgetown lawyer and author of "The Star Spangled Banner," represented the Antelope captives in an epic courtroom battle that identified the moral and legal implications of slavery for a generation. Four of the six justices who heard the case, including Chief Justice John Marshall, owned slaves. Despite this, Key insisted that "by the law of nature all men are free," and that the captives should by natural law be given their freedom. This argument was rejected. The court failed Key, the captives, and decades of American history, siding with the rights of property over liberty and setting the course of American jurisprudence on these issues for the next thirty-five years. The institution of slavery was given new legal cover, and another brick was laid on the road to the Civil War.
The stakes of the Antelope case hinged on nothing less than the central American conflict of the nineteenth century. Both disquieting and enlightening, Dark Places of the Earth restores the Antelope to its rightful place as one of the most tragic, influential, and unjustly forgotten episodes in American legal history.
About the Author
Jonathan M. Bryant is professor of history at Georgia Southern University. He specializes in slavery, emancipation, and constitutional law. He lives in Statesboro, Georgia.