American Slavers: Merchants, Mariners, and the Transatlantic Commerce in Captives, 1644-1865
The first telling of the unknown story of America’s two-hundred-year history as a slave-trading nation
 
“A work of impressive breadth, deep research, and evenhanded analysis.”—James Oakes, New York Review of Books
 
A total of 305,000 enslaved Africans arrived in the New World aboard American vessels over a span of two hundred years as 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 integral to the larger story of American slavery.
 
Engaging 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.
1142398973
American Slavers: Merchants, Mariners, and the Transatlantic Commerce in Captives, 1644-1865
The first telling of the unknown story of America’s two-hundred-year history as a slave-trading nation
 
“A work of impressive breadth, deep research, and evenhanded analysis.”—James Oakes, New York Review of Books
 
A total of 305,000 enslaved Africans arrived in the New World aboard American vessels over a span of two hundred years as 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 integral to the larger story of American slavery.
 
Engaging 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.
35.0 In Stock
American Slavers: Merchants, Mariners, and the Transatlantic Commerce in Captives, 1644-1865

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

by Sean M. Kelley
American Slavers: Merchants, Mariners, and the Transatlantic Commerce in Captives, 1644-1865

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

by Sean M. Kelley

Hardcover

$35.00 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Ships in 1-2 days
  • PICK UP IN STORE

    Your local store may have stock of this item.

Related collections and offers


Overview

The first telling of the unknown story of America’s two-hundred-year history as a slave-trading nation
 
“A work of impressive breadth, deep research, and evenhanded analysis.”—James Oakes, New York Review of Books
 
A total of 305,000 enslaved Africans arrived in the New World aboard American vessels over a span of two hundred years as 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 integral to the larger story of American slavery.
 
Engaging 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780300263596
Publisher: Yale University Press
Publication date: 05/30/2023
Pages: 496
Sales rank: 601,576
Product dimensions: 6.50(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Sean M. Kelley is professor of history at the University of Essex. 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.
From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews