Review - The Slave Ship - A Human History, Marcus Rediker
History Book Review
This book is a heavy one to read. It tackles a terrible subject and one that ranks as one of the worst human tragedies of the modern era. The Slave Ship: A Human History by Marcus Rediker covers several centuries of history of the slave ship that sailed the Atlantic waters from the early 1600s to the 1800s. This book does not shy away from discussing the violence of the slave trade and how brutal the conditions were for both the enslaved and the ordinary crews on board.
Rediker is a professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh and has been writing about the “lower sorts” or lower classes of the Atlantic World (this is a term that I will frequently use on this blog. The Atlantic World refers to countries touching the Atlantic ocean and that were connected to each other via trade networks beginning in the 1400s after the voyage of Christopher Columbus). His book is direct about tackling the violence of slavery. Drawing from eye witness testimonies recorded in diaries, letters, trials, and essays written during the height of the slave trade, Rediker makes a compelling case that violence was central and the heart of slavery. He also does an excellent job in highlighting the perspective of Africans who were seized in the trade. These voices are extracted from accounts by those who left records, primarily white sailors, captains, abolitionists, and merchants.
While Rediker is absolutely correct in identifying the violence of slavery and the slave trade and its role in the first capitalistic economies in Europe and America, it feels as if Rediker is frequently suggesting that the reason slavery took off and grew was because of the rise of capitalism. For me, this seems problematic given that slavery has successfully operated and been brutal and deadly in various economic systems throughout human history. While I would frame it as capitalistic entrepreneurs used slavery to their advantage (thus highlighting the individual agency of the people involved in the trade and their decision to create beliefs that justified the brutal exploitation of their fellow human beings), Rediker seems to suggest that it was the abstract system that caused the problem and that forced people to dehumanize each other. Critics might respond that the first real antislavery movement in human history came on the heels of the rise of capitalism. However, Rediker’s focus on capitalism’s role in the slave trade is perhaps why Rediker deemphasizes the brutality of other slave trades and slave systems throughout the book. While I do not expect him to write chapters on other slave trades (his book is centered on the European slave trade), I would hope that he had acknowledged better the violence of contemporary slave systems that perhaps influenced European models. It might also point to his disassociation of abolitionists from capitalism, a point other scholars are less quick to do.
Overall, I recommend this book, but with a caution. It is very violent and heavy, not from because the author is attempting to be overly graphic, but simply because the sources state that the world of the slave trade was brutal and violent. Every aspect of the voyage was fraught with violence and horror. That is not easy to digest and will leave the reader with much to think about. It is critical to understand that this system was horrible and tragic. Furthermore, as a disciple of Christ and a believer that ones actions have long lasting impacts on future generations, it is important to understand how the violent choices that were central in the entirety of the slave trade could impact the entire system of slavery in the United States and other American societies.
Please let me know if you read the book and what you thought about it!