The Maritime Archaeology of The Slave Trade: Perspectives, Prospects, and Reports from the Slave Wrecks Project

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jonathan Sharfman.

In much of the developing world a triumvirate of treasure hunting, politics, and a lack of technical capacity/resources have skewed portrayals of what maritime history is and why it is meaningful. Shipwreck sites in particular have been promoted as the embodiment of the heritage of "the other" with little local relevance. Treasure hunters accordingly go unchecked in their efforts to recover valuable historical cargos—with detrimental effects for the archaeological inventory. This paper will...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jonathan Sharfman. Justine Benanty. Ricardo Duarte.

In much of the developing world a triumvirate of treasure hunting, politics, and a lack of technical capacity/resources have skewed portrayals of what maritime history is and why it is meaningful. Shipwreck sites in particular have been promoted as the embodiment of the heritage of "the other" with little local relevance. Treasure hunters accordingly go unchecked in their efforts to recover valuable historical cargos—with detrimental effects for the archaeological inventory. This paper will...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jaco Boshoff. Stephen Lubkemann. Yolanda P Duarte.

In December of 1794 the São Josè Paquete d’Afrique foundered off of Capetown while transporting nearly five hundred slaves from Mozambique who were destined for northeastern Brazil, resulting in the death of over two hundred souls. This presentation reports on how ongoing archaeological work on site combined with archival work in Africa, Europe, and South America have enabled identification of the shipwreck. It reflects on some of the insights research about this event is providing about the...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Tiago M Fraga. George Schwarz. Stephen Lubkemann.

Although the history and archaeology of slavery has been well researched, relatively few studies have focused on the design, construction, and use of slave ships. The slave trade introduced new social elements and cultural exchange and created networks of global communication which, after the abolition of slavery, grew into complex international trade systems. The study of slave ships allows us to not only better understand the mechanisms behind this social phenomena, but also brings to light a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ricardo Duarte. Yolanda P Duarte. Stephen Lubkemann.

This paper reports on the ongoing integrated maritime and terrestrial archaeological investigation of two prominent slaving landscapes that represent different experiences in Mozambique’s millennium- long experience of being shaped by Indian Ocean, intra-African, and Transatlantic slave trades. Mozambique Island developed in part around slaving (to the Levante) in the 9th century, and rose to become an epicenter of slaving across the Atlantic as well starting in the late 18th century. In...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jessica Glickman. Dave Conlin.

In one of the most consequential historical processes in global history, over a period of approximately 300 years, more than 12 million enslaved persons were stolen from their homelands in Africa and forcibly placed in the new world.  The maritime technology utilized for this shameful trade developed rapidly driven by market forces, while the physical characteristics of ships designed to transport slaves changed over time due to economic, cultural and historical constraints. This presentation...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Michael C Smith.

The Slave Wrecks Project (SWP) Digital Archive is a multi-level relational database designed to facilitate research on slaver shipwrecks and their context. Its toolset allows researchers to quickly access information on ships, people and places involved in the slave trade. Currently the dataset contains information on over 1,000 slaver wrecks and draws data from a wide variety of sources, including: the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database; Digital Newspaper Archives in Denmark, the Netherlands,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only David Morgan. Jessica Keller. Jeneva Wright. Meredith Hardy. Dave Conlin. Stephen Lubkemann. Paul Gardullo. Chris DeCorse.

Since 2010 the National Park Service (NPS) has worked with the Smithsonian Institution and George Washington University to foster greater understanding of how the African slave trade shaped global history. This endeavor—the Slave Wrecks Project (SWP)—represents a long-term, multi-national effort to locate, document, protect, and analyze maritime sites pertaining to the slave trade, following the entire process including capture, transportation, sale, enslavement, resistance, and freedom. The...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Stephen Lubkemann. Jaco Boshoff. Dave Conlin. David Morgan. Jonathan Sharfman. Chris DeCorse. Ricardo T Duarte. Yolanda P Duarte. Justine Benanty. Michael Smith. Ibrahima Thiaw. Paul Gardullo. Meredith Hardy.

This presentation draws upon our research worldwide—and the Sao Jose investigation in particular--to discuss the Slave Wrecks Project’s emerging signature approach to the maritime archaeology of the slave trade. Slaver shipwrecks serve as points of entrée for broader multi-disciplinary, multi-country, collaborative investigations of African-sourced slave trades and enslavement experiences – aiming to incorporate archaeological, archival, and ethno-historical investigation of related...