The last slave ships : New York and the end of the middle passage / John Harris.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Harris, John (Professor of history), author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Slave trade--New York (State)--New York--History--19th century.

Slave trade.

Slave trade--United States--History--19th century.

Slavery--New York (State)--New York--History--19th century.

Slavery.

Slavery--United States--History--19th century.

Slave ships.

History.

United States.

Slave ships--Atlantic Ocean.

Atlantic Ocean.

New York (State)--New York.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

ix, 300 pages : illustrations, map ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, [2020]

Summary:

A stunning behind-the-curtain look into the last years of the illegal transatlantic slave trade in the United States. 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.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: One. The Final Triangle Takes Shape

Two. Slave Traders at Work

Three. Aboard an Illegal American Slaver

Four. Ring of Spies

Five. American Politics and American Suppression.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780300247336

0300247338

OCLC:

1146553644