The true story of David Henry White, a free Black teenage sailor enslaved on the high seas during the Civil War, whose life story was falsely and intentionally appropriated to advance the Lost Cause trope of a contented slave, happy and safe in servility.
David Henry White, a free Black teenage sailor from Lewes, Delaware, was kidnapped by Captain Raphael Semmes of the Confederate raider Alabama on October 9, 1862, from the Philadelphia-based packet ship Tonawanda. White remained captive on the Alabama for over 600 days, until he drowned during the Battle of Cherbourg on June 19, 1864.
In a best-selling postwar memoir, Semmes falsely described White as a contented slave who remained loyal to the Confederacy. In Kidnapped at Sea, archaeologist Andrew Sillen uses a forensic approach to describe White's enslavement and demise and illustrates how White's actual life belies the Lost Cause narrative his captors sought to construct.
Kidnapped at Sea is the first book to focus on White's actual life, rather than relying on Semmes and other secondary sources. Until now, Semmes's appropriation of White's life has escaped scrutiny, thereby demonstrating the challenges faced by disempowered, illiterate people-and how well-crafted, racist fabrications have become part of Civil War memory.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
What Sillen has done with Kidnapped at Sea is truly monumental. David Henry White's soul is somewhere between here and heaven, grateful to Sillen for finding the facts, telling his story, and honoring his dignity.
-Teresa H. Clarke, Africa.com Thankfully, Andrew Sillen shares [David White's story], keeping [him] from becoming permanently invisible and just another anonymous member of the approximate 700,000 deaths of the Civil War. He was a human, and he was a young man. He was real and so is his story this a well-researched and written book. Andrew Sillen has produced an enjoyable and informative study of a lesser known yet important tale of a free black man kidnapped by Confederates during the Civil War. It is definitely a book that I happily recommend that others read.
-My Civil War Obsession Sillen's Kidnapped at Sea adds new evidence-based arguments that anyone researching CSS Alabama must explore, but more importantly it returns humanity and agency back to David Henry White, an illiterate teenage freeman who found himself impressed into Confederate service until his death under the Stainless Banner.
-Emerging Civil War [A] blockbuster story of battles at sea that naval history fans will devour.
-Blake Stilwell, Military.com Kidnapped at Sea is well researched and well written in an easily readable style. I would highly recommend it for students of the American Civil War, slavery and maritime history.
-Jim Miller, Civil War Notebook
Sprache
Verlagsort
Produkt-Hinweis
Fadenheftung
Gewebe-Einband
Illustrationen
1 s/w Abbildung, 34 s/w Abbildungen
1 Illustrations, black and white; 34 Illustrations, black and white
Maße
Höhe: 233 mm
Breite: 162 mm
Dicke: 29 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-4214-4951-7 (9781421449517)
DOI
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Andrew Sillen is a visiting research scholar in the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers University. He was formerly a professor of paleoanthropology and the founding director of development at the University of Cape Town and the vice president of institutional advancement at Brooklyn College.
Author's Note
Preface
Part I: Context
1. David Henry White and the False Cause
2. Time and Place
3. Childhood in Lewes
4. Passenger Cook
5. Manifest Destiny
6. Gulf of Mexico
7. Secession
8. The Alabama
9. Prelude
Part II: Voyage
10. Capture
11. Storms
12. Report
13. Mutiny
14. South to Galveston
15. Port Royal, Olive Jane and the John A. Parks
16. Brazil and the South Atlantic
17. Cape of Good Hope
18. Simon's Town
19. The Indian Ocean
20. The Looming Battle
21. The Battle of Cherbourg
22. Demise
Part III: Aftermath
23. Accounts
24. An Ocean of Lies
25. Aide toi et dieu t'aidera
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibiliography
