"They Proved to Be Very Good Sailors": Slavery and Freedom in the South Sea. Issue 3 (July 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Walker, Tamara J.
• Is Part Of: Americas. Volume 78:Issue 3(2021)
• Page Start: 439
• Page End: 465
• Publication Date: 2021-07
• Subjects: slavery -- piracy -- slave trade -- African Diaspora -- 18th century; America -- History -- Periodicals; Latin America -- History -- Periodicals; United States -- Relations -- Latin America -- Periodicals; Latin America -- Relations -- United States -- Periodicals; AMERICA LATINA -- HISTORIA -- PUBLICACIONES PERIODICAS; ESTADOS UNIDOS -- RELACIONES EXTERIORES -- AMERICA LATINA -- PUBLICACIONES PERIODICAS; AMERICA LATINA -- RELACIONES -- ESTADOS UNIDOS -- PUBLICACIONES PERIODICAS; Electronic journals; 970.05
• DOI: 10.1017/tam.2021.47
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0003-1615

Abstract

Abstract: This article mines archival sources and published accounts from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries to highlight the extent to which enslaved men, women, and children in the South Sea came into contact with British corsairs. It does so in ways that lend to three important observations: that people of African descent occupied a central role within the history of British corsair activity in the South Sea; that British corsair activity in the South Sea forms part of the history of the slave trade; and that there are important differences between British corsairs' use of enslaved and free people of African descent in the South Sea as compared to the Atlantic World. The latter point, which rests on the recognition of the particular linguistic skills and geographic knowledge held by people of African descent in the South Sea and British corsairs' particular vulnerabilities, also provides a useful framework for future research on both the specificity of black life in the region and the meanings those skills and knowledge held for Africans and their descendants themselves.