American Slavers: Merchants, Mariners, and the Transatlantic Commerce in Captives, 1644-1865

Sean M. Kelley

Published by Yale University Press 2023

American Slavers

Merchants, Mariners, and the Transatlantic Commerce in Captives, 1644-1865

Sean M. Kelley

https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300271553

Overview
Contents

About this book

The first telling of the unknown story of America’s two-hundred-year history as a slave-trading nation

A total of 305,000 enslaved Africans arrived in the New World aboard American vessels over a span of two hundred years, yet this is the first book-length study covering the whole of the North American slave trade. American merchants and mariners sailed to Africa and to the Caribbean to acquire and sell captives. Using exhaustive archival research, including many collections that have never been used before, historian Sean M. Kelley argues that slave trading needs to be seen as an integral part of the larger story of American slavery.

Engaging deeply with both African and American history and addressing the trade over time, Kelley examines the experience of captivity, drawing on more than a hundred African narratives to offer a portrait of enslavement in the regions of Africa frequented by American ships. Kelley also provides a social history of the two American ports where slave trading was most intensive, Newport and Bristol, Rhode Island.

In telling this tragic, brutal, and largely unknown story, Kelley corrects many misconceptions while leaving no doubt that Americans were a nation of slave traders.

Author / Editor information

Sean M. Kelley is professor of history at Essex University. He is the author of The Voyage of the Slave Ship Hare: A Journey into Captivity from Sierra Leone to South Carolina and Los Brazos de Dios: A Plantation Society in the Texas Borderlands, 1821–1865. He lives in Colchester, UK.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Maps Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction: Ships Coming In, Ships Going Out Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part 1. SLAVERS AS SETTLERS, 1644 –1700
Portudal, Senegambia, the Dry Season, 1645 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
One Puritan Slavers, 1644 –1700 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	23
Two The Madagascar Moment, 1680 –1700 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	48
Part Two. SLAVERS AS BRITONS 1700–1775
Newport, Rhode Island, December 5, 1752 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	73
Three Newport and the Rise of the Rum Men, 1700–1750 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
Four Knowledge and Networks, 1751–1775 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	108
Part Three SLAVERS AS AMERICANS 1775–1807
Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, September 19, 1775 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
Five Revolution and Reorientation, 1775–1803 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	151
Six Crescendo, 1804 –1807 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
Part Four LIFE AND DEATH IN THE SLAVE TRADE 1700–1807
Newport, Rhode Island, Present Day Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
Seven Captivity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
Eight Slave-Trading Communities Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
Part Five SLAVERS AS OUTLAWS 1808–1865
Mediterranean Sea, 1830 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303
Nine Evasion, 1808 –1835 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	309
Ten Shills, Hirelings, and True Believers, 1835–1865 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	338
Conclusion A Reckoning of Accounts Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	387
Chronology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	397
Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	401
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	403
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	461
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	463

Language: English
Publisher: Yale University Press
Pages
- Main content: 448
Illustrations
- Other: 18 b-w illus.

eBook

Published: May 17, 2023
ISBN: 9780300271553