Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.
ted maris-wolf In June 1860, Francisco, Madia, and 376 other Central African prisoners, "sobbing piteously at the prospect before them," left crowded, diseaseinfested coastal barracoons to face an equally horrific sight anchored offshore--the 1,025-ton Castillian, a "floating hell" of dysentery, dropsy, and scurvy, which would claim the lives of nearly one-third during a twomonth Atlantic crossing. Unlike most transatlantic journeys Africans experienced in the nineteenth century, theirs would be a kind of Middle Passage in reverse, from the United States to West Africa, running counter to their first Atlantic voyage aboard the Wildfire just weeks before, as captives in the illegal slave trade from the Congo River to Cuba. Francisco and Madia were two of nearly three thousand enslaved Africans U.S. naval vessels seized from slave ships in 1860, more than in any other year. How they found themselves in Key West, Florida, and then aboard an American steamer bound for Liberia sheds light on a crucial moment in U.S. history, when an otherwise indifferent president launched the nation's strongest attack ever on the slave trade and thereby forced Congress to debate the tangible and unprecedented repercussions of slave trade suppression. For a few weeks in the summer
The Journal of the Civil War Era – University of North Carolina Press
Published: Feb 8, 2014
Read and print from thousands of top scholarly journals.
Already have an account? Log in
Bookmark this article. You can see your Bookmarks on your DeepDyve Library.
To save an article, log in first, or sign up for a DeepDyve account if you don’t already have one.
Copy and paste the desired citation format or use the link below to download a file formatted for EndNote
Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
All DeepDyve websites use cookies to improve your online experience. They were placed on your computer when you launched this website. You can change your cookie settings through your browser.