The Last Slave Ships: New York and the End of the Middle Passage
- ISBN-10
- 0300247338
- ISBN-13
- 9780300247336
- Category
- History
- Pages
- 312
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2020-11-24
- Publisher
- Yale University Press
- Author
- John Harris
Description
A stunning behind-the-curtain look into the last years of the illegal transatlantic slave trade in the United States "A remarkable piece of scholarship, sophisticated yet crisply written, and deserves the widest possible audience."--Eric Herschthal, New Republic "Engrossing. . . . Astonishingly well-documented. . . . A signal contribution to U.S. antebellum historiography. Highly recommended for U.S. Middle Period, African American, and Civil War historians, and for all general readers."--Library Journal, Starred Review Long after the transatlantic slave trade was officially outlawed in the early nineteenth century by every major slave trading nation, merchants based in the United States were still sending hundreds of illegal slave ships from American ports to the African coast. The key instigators were slave traders who moved to New York City after the shuttering of the massive illegal slave trade to Brazil in 1850. These traffickers were determined to make Lower Manhattan a key hub in the illegal slave trade to Cuba. In conjunction with allies in Africa and Cuba, they ensnared around two hundred thousand African men, women, and children during the 1850s and 1860s. John Harris explores how the U.S. government went from ignoring, and even abetting, this illegal trade to helping to shut it down completely in 1867.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning
By Ben RainesFrom these parallel stories emerges a profound depiction of America as it struggles to grapple with the traumatic past of slavery and the ways in which racial oppression continue to this day.
-
Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo"
By Zora Neale HurstonThis profound work is an invaluable contribution to our history and culture.
-
African Town
By Irene Latham, Charles WatersChronicling the story of the last Africans brought illegally to America in 1860, African Town is a powerful and stunning novel-in-verse.
-
Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America
By Sylviane A. Diouf" He won the bet. This book reconstructs the lives of the people in West Africa, recounts their capture and passage in the slave pen in Ouidah, and describes their experience of slavery alongside American-born enslaved men and women.
-
Summary of John Harris's The Last Slave Ships
By , Everest MediaPlease note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
-
The Slave Ship: A Human History
By Marcus RedikerDraws on three decades of research to chart the history of slave ships, their crews, and their enslaved passengers, documenting such stories as those of a young kidnapped African whose slavery is witnessed firsthand by a horrified priest ...
-
The Black Joke: The True Story of One Ship's Battle Against the Slave Trade
By A.E. RooksA groundbreaking history of the Black Joke, the most famous member of the British Royal Navy’s anti-slavery squadron, and the long fight to end the transatlantic slave trade.
-
The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Making of AfricaTown, USA: Spirit of Our Ancestors
By Natalie S. RobertsonDebates on reparations for slavery have emerged on national and international levels. However, much of the discourse centers on the legitimate slave trade. Few people are cognizant of the fact...
-
The Wanderer: The Last American Slave Ship and the Conspiracy That Set Its Sails
By Erik CaloniusDescribes the history of the Wanderer, a one-time yacht transformed into an illegal ship, including its smuggling expeditions and those involved in smuggling slaves into the South.
-
Mutiny on the Amistad: The Saga of a Slave Revolt and Its Impact on American Abolition, Law, and Diplomacy
By Howard JonesThis volume presents the first full-scale treatment of the only instance in history where African blacks, seized by slave dealers, won their freedom and returned home.