Materializing the Middle Passage
A Historical Archaeology of British Slave Shipping, 1680-1807
Published on 7. December 2023
Book
Hardback
544 pages
978-0-19-921459-4 (ISBN)
Description
An estimated 2.7 million Africans made an enforced crossing of the Atlantic on British slave ships between c.1680 and 1807--a journey that has become known as the 'Middle Passage'. This book focuses on the slave ship itself. The slave ship is the largest artefact of the Transatlantic slave trade, but because so few examples of wrecked slaving vessels have been located at sea, it is rarely studied by archaeologists. Materializing the Middle Passage: A Historical Archaeology of British Slave Shipping,1680-1807 argues that there are other ways for archaeologists to materialize the slave ship. It employs a pioneering interdisciplinary methodology combining primary documentary sources, maritime and terrestrial archaeology, paintings, maritime and ethnographic museum collections, and many other sources to 'rebuild' British slaving vessels and to identify changes to them over time.
The book then goes on to consider the reception of the slave ship and its trade goods in coastal West Africa, and details the range, and uses, of the many African resources (including ivory, gold, and live animals) entering Britain on returning slave ships. The third section of the book focuses on the Middle Passage experiences of both captives and crews and argues that greater attention needs to be paid to the coping mechanisms through which Africans survived, yet also challenged, their captive passage.
Finally, Jane Webster asks why the African Middle Passage experience remains so elusive, even after decades of scholarship dedicated to uncovering it. She considers when, how, and why the crossing was remembered by 'saltwater' captives in the Caribbean and North America. The marriage of words and things attempted in this richly illustrated book is underpinned throughout by a theoretical perspective combining creolization and postcolonial theory, and by a central focus on the materiality of the slave ship and its regimes.
The book then goes on to consider the reception of the slave ship and its trade goods in coastal West Africa, and details the range, and uses, of the many African resources (including ivory, gold, and live animals) entering Britain on returning slave ships. The third section of the book focuses on the Middle Passage experiences of both captives and crews and argues that greater attention needs to be paid to the coping mechanisms through which Africans survived, yet also challenged, their captive passage.
Finally, Jane Webster asks why the African Middle Passage experience remains so elusive, even after decades of scholarship dedicated to uncovering it. She considers when, how, and why the crossing was remembered by 'saltwater' captives in the Caribbean and North America. The marriage of words and things attempted in this richly illustrated book is underpinned throughout by a theoretical perspective combining creolization and postcolonial theory, and by a central focus on the materiality of the slave ship and its regimes.
Reviews / Votes
This is a well-researched, thorough, and detailed volume, supplemented with illustrations, maps, and copious references. Highly recommended. * Choice * It is, in short, an intellectually challenging book and will doubtless encounter doubters. But I was won over by the sheer weight of information revealed and by the author's persuasive style. * JAMES WALVIN, Family & Community History * Materializing the Middle Passage is a unique examination of the historical archeology ofvessels employed by British shippers to conduct African captives to the Americas. Whilefocused on the eighteenth-century British Atlantic, the book brings significant informationand scholarly interventions from the Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Danish Atlanticinteractions before and after the eighteenth century to make it a more global history withoutshowcasing it as such. * Alex Borucki, Journal of Maritime Archaeology * It is worth the wait, however, and all the detours are interesting. Materializing the MiddlePassage brings together research on art history, maritime archaeology and history from all around the Atlantic, for fresh insights in a well-established field. Scholars approaching the book from any of these perspectives and any geographic corner of the Atlantic are sure to find much that is new and stimulating in this wide-ranging, robustly researched and compellingly argued book. * Antiquity * Materializing the Middle Passage is nonetheless essential reading for anyone who wants to better understand the crucial role that slave ships played in animating the Atlantic World, and the harrowing experiences of the millions of Africans whowere forcibly transported aboard these vessels. * Nicholas Radburn, International Journal of Maritime History * A short review cannot do justice to the rich content of this book (or the scope of its bibliography), nor the deftness with which Webster makes her case. Suffice it to say that Materializing the Middle Passage will be an essential point of reference for students of Atlantic slavery. * Chris Evans, American Historical Review * Materializing the Middle Passage is theoretically engaging and well illustrated. Webster uses particular artifacts and museum collection pieces as symbolic representations of the Middle Passage. More broadly, she seeks to interpret the merchant slaver as the material manifestation of an ideology that allowed humans to be viewed as a commodity. Those interested in the history of the slave trade will appreciate this unique historical archaeological approach. * Frederick H. Smith, New West Indian Guide *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
125 colour illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 185 mm
Thickness: 48 mm
Weight
1225 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-921459-4 (9780199214594)
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 Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Jane Webster
Materializing the Middle Passage
A Historical Archaeology of British Slave Shipping, 1680-1807
E-Book
11/2023
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€128.99
Available for download
Jane Webster
Materializing the Middle Passage
A Historical Archaeology of British Slave Shipping, 1680-1807
E-Book
10/2023
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€128.99
Available for download
Person
Jane Webster is Senior Lecturer in Historical Archaeology at Newcastle University. She received her PhD from Edinburgh University in 1991 and from 1992-1999 taught at the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Leicester, before moving to Newcastle in 2004. In between University posts, Jane was awarded a Caird Senior Research Fellowship at the National Maritime Museum in 2001; Materializing the Middle Passage originated there.
Content
Acknowledgements I: Preliminaries 1: Materializing the Middle Passage: An Introduction in Three Objects 2: The British Slave Trade: A Brief Overview II: The Evidence Bases 3: Voices from the Sea: Documentary Narratives of Middle Passage Voyages 4: Artefacts from the Sea: Shipwrecks and Maritime Archaeology 5: Guineamen: Materializing the Merchant Slaver III: On the African Coast 6: Witch Crafts: Slave Ships, Sailors, and African Cosmologies 7: From Ship to Shore: Some Trade Goods and Their Biographies IV: The Atlantic crossing 8: Other Cargoes: Shipping Home the Productions of Africa 9: Technologies of the Body on the Floating Pesthouse 10: Discipline and Punish: A Material History of Middle Passage Practice 11: Surviving the Middle Passage V: Conclusion 12: The Middle Passage Re-Membered: A Conclusion in Three Objects