The Slave Wrecks Project: An Agenda, An Approach for the Maritime Archaeology of the Slave Trade

Summary

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 sites/landscapes and populations at points of origin, destinations, and other locations in a shipwrecks’ social event trajectory. Research and public engagement mutually inform each other in an approach that seeks effective and meaningful processes for engaging with multiple, heterogeneous, stakeholder communities worldwide. Our conclusions offer an agenda for rendering the maritime archaeology of the slave trade relevant to the investigation, interpretation, and preservation of the past, and consider how maritime archaeology may benefit from greater attention to arguably the most globally consequential seaborne processes in human history.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Maritime Archaeology of The Slave Trade: Perspectives, Prospects, and Reports from the Slave Wrecks Project   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 775