Paths of the Atlantic Slave Trade: Interactions, Identities, and ...

paths explored in this volume highlight the different trajectories and representations of African individuals and their descendants in the Atlantic regions and beyond. Without neglecting demographics, and making use of numerous primary sources, the contributing authors bring to light multiple experiences of African and African-descended historical actors in the North and South Atlantic spaces. More than merely victims or heroes, these individuals and groups were forced into different pathways; they were sometimes able to negotiate, make choices, and seal various alliances—and in these ways they faced the challenges imposed by the Atlantic slave trade’s dynamics. Although the people themselves are no longer alive to narrate their experiences, the chapters of this volume—even when the sources are scarce—retrace multiple slaving paths and piece together individual and collective encounters and interactions across and around the Atlantic