"She Dressed in Strictly Native Style": The Materiality of Power and Identity in the 19th Transatlantic Slave Trade

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Materialities of (Un)Freedom: Examining the Material Consequences of Inequality within Historical Archaeology", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Early 19th century legislation by European and American powers banning the forced exportation of enslaved Africans from the continent did not bring about an end to the transatlantic slave trade. Rather, it prompted traders to explore more secluded establishments and become further enmeshed in local communities where they could continue their operations while evading the gaze of British patrols. In these situations, foreign traders were able to integrate themselves into local networks, gaining access to social and material capital and creating a new class of transnational trading families that would direct the evolution of local environmental, social, and political landscapes. This paper considers the ways in which participants in the transatlantic slave trade in 19th century coastal Guinea manipulated social and material surroundings as a political strategy to alter perceptions of their cultural identity and draw on transnational alliances to maintain positions of power in the region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023   •
• Materialities of (Un)Freedom: Examining the Material Consequences of Inequality within Historical Archaeology

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow