Synopses & Reviews
The tragic untold story of how a nation struggling for its freedom denied it to one of its own.
In 1775, Thomas Jeremiah was one of fewer than five hundred Free Negros” in South Carolina and, with an estimated worth of £1,000 (about $200,000 in todays dollars), possibly the richest person of African descent in British North America. A slaveowner himself, Jeremiah was falsely accused by whiteswho resented his success as a Charleston harbor pilotof sowing insurrection among slaves at the behest of the British.
Chief among the accusers was Henry Laurens, Charlestons leading patriot, a slaveowner and former slave trader, who would later become the president of the Continental Congress. On the other side was Lord William Campbell, royal governor of the colony, who passionately believed that the accusation was unjust and tried to save Jeremiahs life but failed. Though a free man, Jeremiah was tried in a slave court and sentenced to death. In August 1775, he was hanged and his body burned.
J. William Harris tells Jeremiahs story in full for the first time, illuminating the contradiction between a nation that would be born in a struggle for freedom and yet deny itoften violentlyto others.
Review
'\'\\\"The Atlas is the Rosetta Stone of slave historiography, making legible through maps and charts the mass of data that, at long last, allows us to grapple with and interpret the strange and intricate history of the slave trade in African human beings to the New World between 1501 and 1866. If there were Pulitzer Prizes for databases, this would win, hands down.\\\"Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University -- Glenn Altschuler - Philadelphia Inquirer\''
Review
'\'\\\"A brilliant rendition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database. This atlas is essential to the study of chattel slavery. No student of slavery should be without it.\\\"Ira Berlin, University of Maryland -- Henry Louis Gates, Jr.\''
Review
'\'\\\"These magnificent mapsall 189document almost every conceivable aspect of one of the worlds worst crimes. An epic and gruesome drama receives a fitting representation. A superb contribution to scholarship.\\\"Philip D. Morgan, Johns Hopkins University -- Ira Berlin\''
Review
'\'\\\"Sophisticated and erudite, the maps and the introductions to them offer the best and most accessible interpretations on various aspects of the transatlantic slave trade. Full of insights and new findings, the strong analysis and evidence presented will create a permanent distinguished stamp on the book, confirming it as a groundbreaking text for both beginners and advanced students.\\\"Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin -- Philip D. Morgan\''
Review
'\'\\\"
The Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade is a dramatic step forward in the cartographic representation of the slave trade, tracing the flow of captives in much greater detail and with more precision than ever before. This atlas also systematically links African ports to American ports and hinterland African states to the ports from which their slaves were exported: an important step and a reminder that a great deal of the slave trade began deep in Africa.\\\"John Thornton, author of
Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800 -- Toyin Falola\''
Review
' \"This is a highly original work and represents a major contribution to historical analysis. There are no comparable works on this topic.\"Stanley Engerman, University of Rochester -- John Thornton'
Review
' “This is an important project that will add greatly to our understanding about the major, long-term patterns of trade between Africa and the Americas, help to map the African Diaspora, and place the transatlantic slave trade in larger world history context.”Steve Behrendt, Victoria University of Wellington -- Stanley Engerman'
Review
' “This is a major work of enormous consequence, without parallel in the literature, deeply researched, highly original, and of immeasurable value.”Harm J. de Blij, Michigan State University -- Steve Behrendt'
Review
'\'\\\"One of the most ambitious books of this--or any other--publishing season: a fascinating, horrifying, beautifully put-together atlas of the transatlantic slave trade.\\\"--Very Short List
-- Harm J. de Blij\''
Review
'\' \\\"A monumental chronicle of this historical tragedy, one that records some 35,000 individual slaving voyages, roughly 80 percent of those made. . . . [This book] is a human document as well as a rigorous accounting. It is filled with moving poems, photographs, letters and diary entries.\\\"-- Dwight Garner,
New York Times -- Very Short List\''
Synopsis
The first full review of the mass murder by crew members on the slave ship Zong and the lasting repercussions of this horrifying event
On November 29, 1781, Captain Collingwood of the British ship Zong commanded his crew to throw overboard one-third of his cargo: a shipment of Africans bound for slavery in America. The captain believed his ship was off course, and he feared there was not enough drinking water to last until landfall. This book is the first to examine in detail the deplorable killings on the Zong, the lawsuit that ensued, how the murder of 132 slaves affected debates about slavery, and the way we remember the infamous Zong today.
Historian James Walvin explores all aspects of the Zong's voyage and the subsequent trial--a case brought to court not for the murder of the slaves but as a suit against the insurers who denied the owners' claim that their "cargo" had been necessarily jettisoned. The scandalous case prompted wide debate and fueled Britain's awakening abolition movement. Without the episode of the Zong, Walvin contends, the process of ending the slave trade would have taken an entirely different moral and political trajectory. He concludes with a fascinating discussion of how the case of the Zong, though unique in the history of slave ships, has come to be understood as typical of life on all such ships.
Synopsis
'Between 1501 and 1867, the transatlantic slave trade claimed an estimated 12.5 million Africans and involved almost every country with an Atlantic coastline. In this extraordinary book, two leading historians have created the first comprehensive, up-to-date atlas on this 350-year history of kidnapping and coercion. It features nearly 200 maps, especially created for the volume, that explore every detail of the African slave traffic to the New World. The atlas is based on an online database (www.slavevoyages.org) with records on nearly 35,000 slaving voyagesroughly 80 percent of all such voyages ever made. Using maps, David Eltis and David Richardson show which nations participated in the slave trade, where the ships involved were outfitted, where the captives boarded ship, and where they were landed in the Americas, as well as the experience of the transatlantic voyage and the geographic dimensions of the eventual abolition of the traffic. Accompanying the maps are illustrations and contemporary literary selections, including poems, letters, and diary entries, intended to enhance readers understanding of the human story underlying the trade from its inception to its end.
This groundbreaking work provides the fullest possible picture of the extent and inhumanity of one of the largest forced migrations in history.'
Synopsis
The first full review of the mass murder by crew members on the slave ship Zong and the lasting repercussions of this horrifying event
Synopsis
On November 29, 1781, Captain Collingwood of the British ship
Zong commanded his crew to throw overboard one-third of his cargo: a shipment of Africans bound for slavery in America. The captain believed his ship was off course, and he feared there was not enough drinking water to last until landfall. This book is the first to examine in detail the deplorable killings on the
Zong, the lawsuit that ensued, how the murder of 132 slaves affected debates about slavery, and the way we remember the infamous
Zong today.
Historian James Walvin explores all aspects of the Zongand#8217;s voyage and the subsequent trialand#8212;a case brought to court not for the murder of the slaves but as a suit against the insurers who denied the ownersand#8217; claim that their and#8220;cargoand#8221; had been necessarily jettisoned. The scandalous case prompted wide debate and fueled Britainand#8217;s awakening abolition movement. Without the episode of the Zong, Walvin contends, the process of ending the slave trade would have taken an entirely different moral and political trajectory. He concludes with a fascinating discussion of how the case of the Zong, though unique in the history of slave ships, has come to be understood as typical of life on all such ships.
About the Author
'\'David Eltis is Robert W. Woodruff Professor of History and principal investigator, Electronic Slave Trade Database Project, Emory University. The author of The Rise of African Slavery in the Americas, he lives in Atlanta. David Richardson is director, Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation, and professor of economic history, University of Hull, England. He serves on the advisory board of the Electronic Slave Trade Database Project and lives in England. Together, the authors coedited Extending the Frontiers: Essays on the New Transatlantic Slave Trade Database.\''