Representing Slavery: Art, Artefacts and Archives in the Collections of the National Maritime Museum

Description

Representing Slavery draws on the extensive collections of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, to offer unique insights into the histories and legacies of slavery, the slave trade and abolition from the mid-16th until the early 20th centuries. Newly available in paperback, the book illustrates and documents a wide range of objects relating to the slave trade, including maps, photographs, pamphlets and official publications, ethnographic documents, newspapers, paintings, prints and drawings.Ten specially commissioned essays by leading scholars provide a fascinating historical framework, demonstrating the scale and brutality of slavery, the form and extent of African resistance, and the widespread nature of efforts to achieve abolition and emancipation. Representing Slavery reveals, in stark detail, the lasting and multifaceted impact of slavery on Africa as a whole, Europe, and the Americas, as well as highlighting the importance of the often overlooked slave trades in East Africa and the Indian Ocean.

Dr Douglas Hamilton is a Reader in History at the University of Winchester. He was previously Senior Lecturer in Atlantic History at the University of Hull and Curator of 18th-century Maritime and Imperial History at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (2004 to 2006). He specialises in the history of the 18th-century British Atlantic World, with a particular focus on the Caribbean. His books include Scotland, the Caribbean and the Atlantic World, 1750-1820 (2005; re-issued in paperback 2010). Dr Robert Blyth is Curator, Imperial & Maritime History at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. An Indian Ocean specialist, his publications include The Empire of the Raj: India, Eastern Africa and the Middle East, 1858-1947 (2003). James Walvin is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of York, UK. His many publications include An Atlas of Slavery and the Slave Trade (2005), The Trader, the Owner, the Slave: Parallel Lives in the Age of Slavery (2007) and a Short History of Slavery (2007). David Richardson is Professor of Economic History at the University of Hull, UK. He is a member of the editorial board of Slavery and Abolition and on the Advisory Board of the NEH funded Electronic Slave Trade Database Project at Emory University, Atlanta. Dr John Oldfield is Director of WISE (Wilberforce Professor of Slavery and Emancipation) at the University of Hull, UK. His most recent publication is Transatlantic abolitionism in the Age of Revolution: an international history of anti-slavery, 1787-1820 (2013). Dr Hakim Adi is Reader in the History of Africa and the African Diaspora at the University of Chichester, UK. He is a founder member of the Black and Asian Studies Association, which he chaired for several years. His publications include (co-editor with C. Bressey) Belonging in Europe: The African Diaspora and Work (2010). Marcus Wood is Professor of English at the University of Sussex, UK. His recent publications include Black milk: imagining slavery in the visual cultures of Brazil and America (2013) and The Horrible Gift of Freedom: Atlantic Slavery and the Representation of Emancipation (2010), Geoff Quilley is Professor of Art History at the University of Sussex, UK. He was previously Curator of Fine Art at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. His publications include Art for the Nation:The Oil Paintings Collections of the National Maritime Museum (2006). Paul Lovejoy is Distinguished Research Professor, Department of History, York University, Canada and holds the Canada Research Chair in African Diaspora History. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Director of the Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples, and formerly a member of the UNESCO 'Slave Route' Project. He has published over 30 books on African history and African diaspora history, including Transformations in Slavery. A History of Slavery in Africa (2011, 3rd revised edition). Dr Jane Webster is Senior Lecturer in Historical Archaeology and Head of Archaeology at Newcastle University, UK. She is a former Caird Senior Research Fellow at the National Maritime Museum, and is currently completing a book entitled Material Culture of the Middle Passage. Douglas Hamilton, Robert Blyth, James Walvin, Paul Lovejoy, David Richardson, John Oldfield, Hakim Adi, Jane Webster, Geoff Quilley, Marcus Wood.

'This superbly crafted catalogue is one of the finest products of a cascade of remarkable events and publications that have marked the bicentennial of the abolition of the British Atlantic slave trade ... this catalogue offers a penetrating visual commentary on four centuries of the slave trade, its abolition, and its legacies ... The beautifully illustrated volume draws readers deeply into the experience of slavery and the long process of abolition, offering vivid perspectives on the slave trade in both the Atlantic and Indian Ocean worlds. ... Readers will be fascinated by the degree to which the legacies of the trade and its abolition extend to the present ... Essential.' Choice 2008 '... a stunning collection of 623 paintings, photos, artifacts, and other documents.' Foreword Magazine 2009 'This beautifully illustrated work ... Through its essays and catalogue ... illustrates that slavery and the slave trade involved more than just slaves working on plantations and that they affected the entire Atlantic world ... While this book would look good on a coffee table, it is not simply for show, for by reading the essays and examining the catalogue, one will also question and work to understand, the legacies of slavery and abolition.' International Journal of Maritime History