From Africa to Jamaica: The Making of an Atlantic Slave Society, 1775-1807
Author(s): Audra A. Diptee (Author)
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Publication Date: 15 May 2012
Language: English
Print length: 208 pages
ISBN-10: 0813042003
ISBN-13: 9780813042008
Book Description
“Many Jamaicans are seeking empirical data from the period of the trade in Africans to justify the case for reparation. This book should provide them with much of what they need to understand this crime against humanity.”–Verene A. Shepherd, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica “This book makes a very significant contribution to the literature on the Atlantic Slave Trade and on its impact in Jamaica. It is a highly original study and addresses the important issue of the demography of the enslaved as well as emphasizing their humanity.”–Gad Heuman, University of Warwick Rich with historical sketches of the life and experiences of slaves in Africa, on slave ships, and in Jamaica, this volume illustrates the way enslaved Africans lived and helped to shape Jamaican society in the three decades before British abolition of the slave trade. Audra Diptee’s in-depth investigations reveal unexpected insights into the demographics of those captured in Africa and legally transported on British slave ships. For example, there is a commonly held belief that slave traders had a preference for adult males. In fact, the practicalities of slave raiding meant that women, children, and large groups of the elderly were particularly vulnerable during raids and were more often captured and made available for sale in the Caribbean. From Africa to Jamaica offers a new look at the Atlantic slave trade in its final years, fleshing out the historical portrait of the African men, women, and children who were sold in Jamaica and were thus among the last of the enslaved to put their stamp on Jamaican society. There is no comparable study that takes such a comprehensive approach, looking at both the African and Jamaican sides of the trade system. Audra A. Diptee, assistant professor of history at Carleton University, is the coeditor of Children in Colonial Africa and Beyond Fragmentation: Perspectives in Caribbean History.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“”This book makes a very significant contribution to the literature on the Atlantic Slave Trade and on its impact in Jamaica. It is a highly original study and addresses the important issue of the demography of the enslaved as well as emphasising their humanity.””–Gad Heuman, University of Warwick
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Audra A. Diptee, assistant professor of history at Carleton University, is the co-editor of Children in Colonial Africa and Beyond Fragmentation: Perspectives in Caribbean History.
From the Back Cover
“One of the greatest strengths of Diptee’s account is the effort she makes to reveal the particular experiences and perspectives of women, and especially children. She thus makes a significant contribution to the recent scholarly effort to illuminate the full range of experiences of the enslaved. Diptee’s worthy account does much to expand our understanding of the trade that connected West Africa and Jamaica in the late eighteenth century and the people whose lives were forcibly transformed by it.”– International Journal of Maritime History “Diptee introduces the human dimension into our understanding of the dehumanizing experience of the Middle Passage better than any other study that I know of. She follows individuals as they move from Africa to Jamaica in order to explore expectations and destinies at the personal level.”–Paul Lovejoy, author of Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa “Many Jamaicans are seeking empirical data from the period of the trade in Africans to justify the case for reparation. This book should provide them with much of what they need to understand this crime against humanity.”–Verene A. Shepherd, University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica “Makes a very significant contribution to the literature on the Atlantic Slave Trade and on its impact in Jamaica. It is a highly original study and addresses the important issue of the demography of the enslaved as well as emphasizing their humanity.”–Gad Heuman, University of Warwick From Africa to Jamaica offers a new look at the Atlantic slave trade in its final years, fleshing out the historical portrait of the African men, women, and children who were sold in Jamaica and were thus among the last of the enslaved to put their stamp on Jamaican society. There is no comparable study that takes such a comprehensive approach, looking at both the African and Jamaican sides of the trade system. Audra A. Diptee, associate professor of history at Carleton University, is the coeditor of Remembering Africa and Its Diasporas, Children in Colonial Africa, and Beyond Fragmentation: Perspectives in Caribbean History.
About the Author
Audra A. Diptee, associate professor of history at Carleton University, is the coeditor of Remembering Africa and Its Diasporas, Children in Colonial Africa, and Beyond Fragmentation: Perspectives in Caribbean History.
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