Captives and Voyagers: Black Migrants Across the Eighteenth-Century British Atlantic World (Antislavery, Abolition, and the Atlantic World)

361 Pages·2009·4.2 MB·English

by  Alexander X. Byrd

Captives  Voyagers
black migrants across
the eighteenth-century
british atlantic world
Alexander X. Byrd
Captives and Voyagers
ByrdCAPTIVES.indd 1 10/15/08 10:16:51 AM
Antislavery, Abolition, and the Atlantic World
r. j. m. blackett and james brewer stewart, Series Editors
ByrdCAPTIVES.indd 2 10/15/08 10:16:51 AM
Captives Voyagers

black migrants across
the eighteenth-century
british atlantic world
Alexander X. Byrd
louisiana state university press baton rouge
ByrdCAPTIVES.indd 3 10/15/08 10:16:51 AM
Published by Louisiana State University Press
Copyright © 2008 by Louisiana State University Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Printing
designer: Amanda McDonald Scallan
typeface: Minion
typesetter: J. Jarrett Engineering
printer and binder: Thomson-Shore, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Byrd, Alexander X., 1968–
Captives and voyagers : black migrants across the eighteenth-century British Atlantic World /
Alexander X. Byrd.
p. cm. — (Antislavery, abolition, and the Atlantic world)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8071-3359-0 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Slavery—Great Britain—History—18th century. 2.
Blacks—Great Britain—History—18th century. 3. Slave trade—Nigeria—History—18th century. 4.
Sierra Leone—History. I. Title.
HT1161.B97 2008
306.3’62094109033—dc22
2008018831
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Produc-
tion Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. ∞
ByrdCAPTIVES.indd 4 10/15/08 10:16:52 AM
For Jeanette
ByrdCAPTIVES.indd 5 10/15/08 10:16:52 AM
ByrdCAPTIVES.indd 6 10/15/08 10:16:52 AM
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
introduction
Black Migrations 1
part I.
CaptIVes
one
The Slave Trade from the Biafran Interior
Violence, Serial Displacement, and the Rudiments of Igbo Society 17
two
The Slave Ship and the Beginnings of Igbo
Society in the African Diaspora 32
three
White Power and the Context of Slave Seasoning
in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica 57
four
Routines of Disaster and Revolution 86
part II.
Voyagers
five
Social Movement and Imagining Freedom in the British Capital 125
six
Migration and the Impossible Demands of Leaving London 139
seven
From Slaves to Free Subjects in British North America 154
ByrdCAPTIVES.indd 7 10/15/08 10:16:52 AM
viii contents
eight
Black Society and the Limits of British Freedom 167
nine
The Effects of Exodus
Afro-Maritime Society in Motion 177
ten
Arriving in Sierra Leone
Catastrophe and Its Aftermaths 200
conclusion
Migration and Black Society in the Eighteenth-Century
British Atlantic World 244
Notes 253
Bibliography 313
Index 333
ByrdCAPTIVES.indd 8 10/15/08 10:16:52 AM
acknowledgments
I have accumulated a great many debts in researching and writing this book
about transatlantic black migration across the late eighteenth-century Brit-
ish empire. They are debts I can never discharge, but it is a great pleasure to
have the opportunity to acknowledge a few of them here.
I first seriously grappled with the questions and concerns at the heart
of this book as a history graduate student at Duke University. In Durham,
Janet Ewald, the late John Cell, Bill Chafe, Raymond Gavins, Barry Gaspar,
Lawrence Goodwyn, Sydney Nathans, Richard Powell, Julius Scott, and
Peter Wood, among others, pushed me to read more closely, to write more
clearly, and to think more imaginatively. When it came time to take exams
and to write the dissertation, Jan chaired a committee consisting of Jack,
Ray, Julius, and Peter. These five were demanding and generous in ways
that will continue to benefit me, I am certain, for as long as I write and
teach history.
I am especially grateful to graduate students whose tenures at Duke co-
incided with mine. I had the great fortune of arriving in Durham at a time
when a lively group of slavery scholars, Afro Americanists, and students of
early America were also there. So I benefited enormously from the company
of Herman Bennett, Rod Clare, Matthew Countryman, Kathryn Dungy,
Karen Ferguson, Charles McKinney, James A. McMillin, Jennifer Morgan,
Celia Naylor, Ifeoma Nwankwo, Paul Ortiz, Kara Miles Turner, and others.
Luckily, I also first met Vincent Brown, Stephanie Smallwood, and Claudio
Saunt at Duke. They have remained great friends and interlocutors ever
since. I don’t have words for what Annie Valk and Leslie Brown have meant
to me, my family, and this project over the years. I am simply thankful.
I finished both the dissertation and the ensuing book as a member of
the department of history at Rice University. John Boles, Carl Caldwell,
Edward Cox, Rebecca Goetz, Ira Gruber, Atieno Odhiambo, Paula Sanders,
Allison Sneider, and Kerry Ward read parts of the manuscript (and some
among those listed read all of it). I appreciate their feedback very much.
ByrdCAPTIVES.indd 9 10/15/08 10:16:52 AM