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"Of Blood and Treasure": Recaptive Africans and the Politics of Slave Trade Suppression

"Of Blood and Treasure": Recaptive Africans and the Politics of Slave Trade Suppression 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 http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Journal of the Civil War Era University of North Carolina Press

"Of Blood and Treasure": Recaptive Africans and the Politics of Slave Trade Suppression

The Journal of the Civil War Era , Volume 4 (1) – Feb 8, 2014

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Publisher
University of North Carolina Press
Copyright
Copyright @ The University of North Carolina Press
ISSN
2159-9807
Publisher site
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Abstract

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

Journal

The Journal of the Civil War EraUniversity of North Carolina Press

Published: Feb 8, 2014

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