The Uncovering of the World of the São José Paquete d’África, a Portuguese Slave Ship

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "The Uncovering of the World of the São José Paquete d’África, a Portuguese Slave Ship," at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

This panel will discuss how the ongoing recovery of the story of the S. José, a slave ship that foundered off Cape Town in 1794, renders a critique of longstanding historiographies that have neglected, and worked to prevent a full reckoning with the past.

With researchers drawn from the international team whose collaboration is recovering the long-forgotten story of the slave ship, the panel will show how the research into this singular story is revealing the social, political, and economic reach of the slave trade and its ubiquitous role in creating a world that was in so many ways constituted by enslavement.

Drawing on their own experiences and work in different corners of the “the world of São José”, the panelists will discuss how this process is playing out in different corners of the world linked by this story including South Africa, Mozambique, Brazil, and the USA.