کوشا: سفری در دنیای تجارت برده

The slave trade is one of the best known yet least understood processes in our history. The popular image of traders in slave ships going to Africa and rounding up slaves as if they were cattle is not only historically inaccurate, it also disguises the fact that the slave trade was a highly organized Atlantic-wide system that required close collaboration at the highest levels of government in Europe, Africa, and the New World. Using the private journal of First Lieutenant Robert Durand, and supplementing it with a wealth of archival research, Yale historian Robert Harms re-creates in astonishing detail the voyage of the French slave ship The Diligent.We have histories of the slave trade, most recently Hugh Thomas's massive and authoritative The Slave Trade, but The Diligent is something entirely different: a deep bore into the economic, political, and moral worldviews of the participants on all sides of the trade, complete with a vivid dramatis personae. Nobody who reads this book will ever look at the slave trade in the same way again. "In The Diligent, historian Robert Harms uses an entirely new approach to uncover the complex workings of the slave trade. Drawing upon the recently discovered private journal of First Lieutenant Robert Durand, Harms recreates the macabre journey of a French slave ship and interweaves it with the remarkable dramas of its slave route. The result is an astonishingly detailed look at the voyage of a single slave ship that also sheds new light on the collaborative nature of the slave trade and how it shaped morality, politics and economics on three continents.". "The Diligent began her journey in Brittany in 1731, and Harms follows her along the African coast where her goods were traded for slaves, to Martinique where her captives were sold to work on sugar plantations. Robert Durand was an ambitious 26 year old meticulously studying the workings of a slave ship in the hope of one day becoming a captain. His journal gives a dispassionate account of day to day life on a ship navigating an extraordinary time in history, a time when momentous changes were transforming the Atlantic world. In Europe, the mercantilist economies of the seventeenth century were grudgingly giving way to the private enterprise merchant capitalism of the eighteenth century. In West Africa, the small trading states of the Guinea coast were being overrun by new militarized African empires financed by profits from the slave trade. And in the Caribbean, the introduction of new plantation crops was creating an unprecedented demand for slave labor.". "The gruesome details of daily life aboard a slave ship defy contemporary imagination, but Durand records his fifteen-month journey with unflinching detail. Harms has supplemented Durand's journal with a wealth of archival research that brings to life a world in which slavery was a commerce carried out without qualms. He shows French merchants wrangling with their government for the right to traffic in slaves, African kings waging epic wars for control of European slave trading posts and representatives of European governments negotiating the complicated politics of the Guinea coast to ensure a steady supply of slave labor for their countries' colonies. On the slave ships themselves, captains chose between competing schools of thought on how best to avert slave rebellions, exercise and feed captives in irons and reduce mortality rates while packing in as much human cargo as their ships could hold. Pirates trolled the sea looking for slaves, and ship officers routinely cheated their outfitters to profit from the lucrative human trade. The Diligent is filled with rich and riveting stories that explain how the slave trade worked on all levels, from geopolitics to the rigging of ships."--BOOK JACKET. The groundbreaking history of the Atlantic slave trade, winner of the Mark Lynton History Prize, the Frederick Douglass Book Prize, and the J. Russell Major Prize. In The Diligent, acclaimed historian Robert Harms reveals the complex workings of the slave trade by drawing on the private journal of First Lieutenant Robert Durand to recreate the macabre journey of a French slave ship.The Diligent began her journey in Brittany in 1731, and Harms follows her along the African coast where her goods were traded for slaves, then to Martinique where her captives were sold to work on sugar plantations. He brings to life a world in which slavery was carried out without qualms: the gruesome details of daily life aboard a slave ship, French merchants wrangling for the right to traffic in slaves, African kings waging epic wars for control of slave trading posts, and representatives of European governments negotiating the complicated politics of the Guinea coast to ensure a steady supply of labor for their countries'colonies. By combining the detailed story of an expedition with an exploration of the significant personalities and events that were shaping Europe, West Africa, and the Caribbean in the early eighteenth century, The Diligent provides an intimate understanding of a horrifying world. List of illustrations -- Preface -- Illustrations credits -- Acknowledgments -- pt. 1. Matters of morality -- -- pt. 2. The financiers -- pt. 3. Outfitting a slaver -- -- pt. 4. Sailing south -- -- pt. 5. Cruising the African coast -- -- pt. 6. Whydah -- -- pt. 7. Assou -- -- pt. 8. Jakin -- -- pt. 9. Atlantic Islands -- -- pt. 10. The middle passage -- -- pt. 11. Martinique -- -- pt. 12. The return -- -- Afterword -- appendix A. Reconstructing the balance sheet of the Diligent ---- appendix B.-- Abbreviations used in notes-- Notes-- Index. Using the private journal of First Lieutenant Robert Durand, and supplementing it with archival research, Robert Harms recreates the voyage of the French slave ship, "The Diligent". This book challenges popular beliefs about the slave trade - a highly organized, Atlantic wide system. Draws on the private journal of First Lieutenant Robert Durand and a variety of archival material to describe the voyage of the French slave ship, "The Diligent," and its role within the context of the slave trade as a whole The voyage of the French slave ship The Diligent is recreated by the author to investigate the economic, political, and moral worldviews of the participants on all sides of the slave trade With a flourish of his quill pen, he formed the D three and a half centimeters high with graceful curlicues at the top and bottom.