Dark Places of the Earth: The Voyage of the Slave Ship Antelope

by Jonathan M. Bryant

Overview

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist in History

A dramatic work of historical detection illuminating one of the most significant—and long forgotten—Supreme Court cases in American history.

In 1820, a suspicious vessel was spotted lingering off the coast of northern Florida, the Spanish slave ship Antelope. Since the United States had outlawed its own participation in the international slave trade more than a decade before, the ship's almost 300 African captives were considered illegal cargo under American laws. But with slavery still a critical part of the American economy, it would eventually fall to the Supreme Court to determine whether or not they were slaves at all, and if so, what should be done with them.

Bryant describes the captives' harrowing voyage through waters rife with pirates and governed by an array of international treaties. By the time the Antelope arrived in Savannah, Georgia, the puzzle of how to determine the captives' fates was inextricably knotted. Set against the backdrop of a city in the grip of both the financial panic of 1819 and the lingering effects of an outbreak of yellow fever, Dark Places of the Earth vividly recounts the eight-year legal conflict that followed, during which time the Antelope's human cargo were mercilessly put to work on the plantations of Georgia, even as their freedom remained in limbo.

When at long last the Supreme Court heard the case, Francis Scott Key, the legendary Georgetown lawyer and author of "The Star Spangled Banner," represented the Antelope captives in an epic courtroom battle that identified the moral and legal implications of slavery for a generation. Four of the six justices who heard the case, including Chief Justice John Marshall, owned slaves. Despite this, Key insisted that "by the law of nature all men are free," and that the captives should by natural law be given their freedom. This argument was rejected. The court failed Key, the captives, and decades of American history, siding with the rights of property over liberty and setting the course of American jurisprudence on these issues for the next thirty-five years. The institution of slavery was given new legal cover, and another brick was laid on the road to the Civil War.

The stakes of the Antelope case hinged on nothing less than the central American conflict of the nineteenth century. Both disquieting and enlightening, Dark Places of the Earth restores the Antelope to its rightful place as one of the most tragic, influential, and unjustly forgotten episodes in American legal history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780871406750
Publisher:	Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	07/13/2015
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Jonathan M. Bryant is professor of history at Georgia Southern University. He specializes in slavery, emancipation, and constitutional law. He lives in Statesboro, Georgia.

Editorial Reviews

05/04/2015
Bryant (How Curious a Land), professor of history at Georgia Southern University, centers his study on the little-known but significant Supreme Court case of the Antelope, a Spanish slave ship captured in 1820 by privateers and then seized by an American revenue cutter (an armed customs vessel) off the Florida coast. Although slavery was still legal in the U.S., the Atlantic slave trade had been outlawed for nearly 20 years. The Antelope decision would set an important precedent on questions of property rights, international law, and the very idea of natural rights. The court upheld the principle that slaves, though human beings, were also property, reinforcing the “divisions that would tear the nation apart.” Whereas the justices refused to restore the captives’ liberty, Bryant’s aim is to restore their agency by delving into the documents generated by the case and following the path of the enslaved from Africa into the “wild and lawless” Atlantic world. The nature of the sources, unfortunately, makes it difficult for him to uncover more than brief glimpses of the captives’ individual experiences. Bryant succeeds in locating American pro- and antislavery efforts within a context of events across Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean, making this a valuable piece of 19th-century history. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"In Bryant’s gripping telling, the moral contradictions of the time are laid bare…. Carefully researched, beautifully crafted, Dark Places—the title comes, ominously but evocatively, from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness—is one of the very few books that delivers on the promiscuous promise to employ an obscure episode to offer new insights on a well-trod byway of history."

Boston Globe - David M. Shribman

"Illuminating…. Fascinating…."

Wall Street Journal - David Reynolds

"Jonathan Bryant sheds new and revealing light on a dark chapter in the history of American slavery, and on a Supreme Court decision that, despite its faults, deserves to be better known."

Brian McGinty

"Bryant masterfully narrates the incredible machinations revolving around the eventual case, which would drag on for seven years, and take a considerable toll on the captives awaiting a decision…. Epic in scope, providing rich portraits of life at sea and trade in the Atlantic world, slavery and its hazards in the malaria-ridden South, and the tension between the ethical and financial interests of a slew of chummy Southern gentlemen adjudicating the case, Dark Places of the Earth is an invaluable contribution to the understanding of antebellum America."

Philadelphia Tribune - Bobbi Booker

"[Bryant] meticulously unwinds the years-long, complex legal history that finally led to the case being heard by the six justices of John Marshall's Supreme Court, four of whom were slave owners…. From the West African shores to Georgia, Washington, D.C., and, finally Liberia, Bryant's riveting history of this case and these slaves is a remarkable one."

Shelf Awareness - Tom Lavoie

"In this fascinating and engagingly written study, Jonathan M. Bryant illuminates a largely forgotten—but highly significant—episode in American legal history. Based on prodigious and meticulous research, Dark Places of the Earth will appeal to general readers and scholars alike. An important, original book."

Douglas R. Egerton

"An eye-opening account of a little-known (yet horrifying) episode in American history…. In Dark Places of the Earth, Bryant has salvaged the history of an era when black lives mattered to slavers only as profit and the dead were thrown to the sharks."

Washington Independent Review of Books - Adam Rothman

"Detailed and fascinating account…. This is a superb examination of an obscure but important episode in the struggle against slavery."

Booklist, Starred review - Jay Freeman

"From its poetic title to its concluding sentence, Dark Places of the Earth spins a riveting yarn, using the vexed voyage of the slave ship Antelope to illuminate a profound moment in American history. Vividly drawn characters and courtroom drama make this narrative history of a high order."

Marcus Rediker

04/15/2015
The Slave Trade Act of 1819 and the Piracy Act of 1820 were laws enacted by Congress to dissuade U.S. citizens from participating in the international slave trade. These laws were put to the test in the 1825 Supreme Court case The Antelope, 23 U.S. 66. Bryant (history, Georgia Southern Univ.; How Curious a Land) charts the international slave trade through the story of the Antelope, a slave ship captured in the waters of Florida in 1820. Found on the ship were approximately 300 slaves. Since slavery in the South was legal, but the slave trade was not, it was left to the courts to determine the fate of the captives. Chief Justice John Marshall determined that although slavery was morally repugnant, the Supreme Court viewed the issue as a property rights case. If the slave trade was legal in the home country of the traders, then their activities were not illegal within U.S. waters. In the end, Marshall freed most of the slaves by transporting them to Liberia. The case would later prove influential to the better-known United States v. The Amistad (1941). VERDICT This excellent study is highly recommended for readers interested in the legal history of slavery in the United States. It should be read alongside Marcus Rediker's The Amistad Rebellion. [See Prepub Alert, 2/2/15.]—John R. Burch, Campbellsville Univ. Lib., KY

Library Journal

2015-04-01
The little-known story of a slave ship, the fate of its captives, and its place in American history. In 1820, the Spanish slave ship Antelope was captured off the coast of Africa by privateers who operated in the murky world between state-sanctioned raiding and piracy. To the Antelope's hold they added slaves captured from other ships and then, with more than 300 enslaved Africans, set sail back across the Atlantic. In this meticulous account, Bryant (History/Georgia Southern Univ.; How Curious a Land: Conflict and Change in Greene County, Georgia, 1850-1885, 2004) describes how the Antelope was seized by a Navy revenue cutter near Florida, thus setting off a series of trials that would have a profound impact on the direction of American history. Although United States law banned the slave trade, the fate of the Antelope's captives was subject to fierce legal debate. Bryant traces the Antelope case from proceedings in Savannah to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Francis Scott Key, better known today as the author of "The Star-Spangled Banner," argued to free the captives and return them to Africa. This legal odyssey lasted eight years and, all the while, the Antelope's captives lived and labored as slaves, dying from overwork and disease in large numbers, until their case was finally resolved. Bryant's familiarity with admiralty law and the slave trade makes him an able guide through this complex and often confusing tangle of legal and moral issues, which general readers may find difficult to parse. He writes with compassion for the African captives—most of whom were children and teenagers—and convincingly argues for the importance of the Antelope case as a flash point in the deepening conflict over slavery. A richly documented work that restores the Antelope to its central place in the long, grim history of the Atlantic slave trade.

Kirkus Reviews