A History of the Slave Ship

FAIN: FA-51932-05

Marcus Rediker
University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA 15260-6133)

I propose a history of the slave ship. I will investigate the material evolution of this world-transforming technology, concentrating on the British and American slave trade of the eighteenth century and the ship's role in Atlantic economic development. I will also analyze the slave ship as a stage for the enactment of four great dramas of the age: relations between captain and crew; between the crew and the enslaved; among the enslaved themselves; and finally between abolitionists and pro-slavery advocates over how the middle passage and the ship itself would be represented in public debate.

Associated Products

The Slave Ship: A Human History (Book)
Title: The Slave Ship: A Human History
Author: Marcus Rediker
Abstract: In this widely praised history of an infamous institution, award-winning scholar Marcus Rediker shines a light into the darkest corners of the British and American slave ships of the eighteenth century. Drawing on thirty years of research in maritime archives, court records, diaries, and firsthand accounts, The Slave Ship is riveting and sobering in its revelations, reconstructing in chilling detail a world nearly lost to history: the "floating dungeons" at the forefront of the birth of African American culture.
Year: 2007
Primary URL: http://http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/295636/the-slave-ship-by-marcus-rediker/9780143114253/
Publisher: Viking-Penguin
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780143114253
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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