Captives and Voyagers: Black Migrants Across the Eighteenth-Century British Atlantic World (Antislavery, Abolition, and the Atlantic World) PDF
Preview Captives and Voyagers: Black Migrants Across the Eighteenth-Century British Atlantic World (Antislavery, Abolition, and the Atlantic World)
Captives Voyagers black migrants across the eighteenth-century british atlantic world Alexander X. Byrd Captives and Voyagers ByrdCAPTIVES.indd 1 10/15/08 10:16:51 AM Antislavery, Abolition, and the Atlantic World r. j. m. blackett and james brewer stewart, Series Editors ByrdCAPTIVES.indd 2 10/15/08 10:16:51 AM Captives Voyagers black migrants across the eighteenth-century british atlantic world Alexander X. Byrd louisiana state university press baton rouge ByrdCAPTIVES.indd 3 10/15/08 10:16:51 AM Published by Louisiana State University Press Copyright © 2008 by Louisiana State University Press All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America First Printing designer: Amanda McDonald Scallan typeface: Minion typesetter: J. Jarrett Engineering printer and binder: Thomson-Shore, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Byrd, Alexander X., 1968– Captives and voyagers : black migrants across the eighteenth-century British Atlantic World / Alexander X. Byrd. p. cm. — (Antislavery, abolition, and the Atlantic world) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8071-3359-0 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Slavery—Great Britain—History—18th century. 2. Blacks—Great Britain—History—18th century. 3. Slave trade—Nigeria—History—18th century. 4. Sierra Leone—History. I. Title. HT1161.B97 2008 306.3’62094109033—dc22 2008018831 The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Produc- tion Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. ∞ ByrdCAPTIVES.indd 4 10/15/08 10:16:52 AM For Jeanette ByrdCAPTIVES.indd 5 10/15/08 10:16:52 AM ByrdCAPTIVES.indd 6 10/15/08 10:16:52 AM Contents Acknowledgments ix introduction Black Migrations 1 part I. CaptIVes one The Slave Trade from the Biafran Interior Violence, Serial Displacement, and the Rudiments of Igbo Society 17 two The Slave Ship and the Beginnings of Igbo Society in the African Diaspora 32 three White Power and the Context of Slave Seasoning in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica 57 four Routines of Disaster and Revolution 86 part II. Voyagers five Social Movement and Imagining Freedom in the British Capital 125 six Migration and the Impossible Demands of Leaving London 139 seven From Slaves to Free Subjects in British North America 154 ByrdCAPTIVES.indd 7 10/15/08 10:16:52 AM viii contents eight Black Society and the Limits of British Freedom 167 nine The Effects of Exodus Afro-Maritime Society in Motion 177 ten Arriving in Sierra Leone Catastrophe and Its Aftermaths 200 conclusion Migration and Black Society in the Eighteenth-Century British Atlantic World 244 Notes 253 Bibliography 313 Index 333 ByrdCAPTIVES.indd 8 10/15/08 10:16:52 AM acknowledgments I have accumulated a great many debts in researching and writing this book about transatlantic black migration across the late eighteenth-century Brit- ish empire. They are debts I can never discharge, but it is a great pleasure to have the opportunity to acknowledge a few of them here. I first seriously grappled with the questions and concerns at the heart of this book as a history graduate student at Duke University. In Durham, Janet Ewald, the late John Cell, Bill Chafe, Raymond Gavins, Barry Gaspar, Lawrence Goodwyn, Sydney Nathans, Richard Powell, Julius Scott, and Peter Wood, among others, pushed me to read more closely, to write more clearly, and to think more imaginatively. When it came time to take exams and to write the dissertation, Jan chaired a committee consisting of Jack, Ray, Julius, and Peter. These five were demanding and generous in ways that will continue to benefit me, I am certain, for as long as I write and teach history. I am especially grateful to graduate students whose tenures at Duke co- incided with mine. I had the great fortune of arriving in Durham at a time when a lively group of slavery scholars, Afro Americanists, and students of early America were also there. So I benefited enormously from the company of Herman Bennett, Rod Clare, Matthew Countryman, Kathryn Dungy, Karen Ferguson, Charles McKinney, James A. McMillin, Jennifer Morgan, Celia Naylor, Ifeoma Nwankwo, Paul Ortiz, Kara Miles Turner, and others. Luckily, I also first met Vincent Brown, Stephanie Smallwood, and Claudio Saunt at Duke. They have remained great friends and interlocutors ever since. I don’t have words for what Annie Valk and Leslie Brown have meant to me, my family, and this project over the years. I am simply thankful. I finished both the dissertation and the ensuing book as a member of the department of history at Rice University. John Boles, Carl Caldwell, Edward Cox, Rebecca Goetz, Ira Gruber, Atieno Odhiambo, Paula Sanders, Allison Sneider, and Kerry Ward read parts of the manuscript (and some among those listed read all of it). I appreciate their feedback very much. ByrdCAPTIVES.indd 9 10/15/08 10:16:52 AM
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