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

this chapter is an innovative contribution to the understanding of the experiences of groups and individuals who were victims of and whose lives were transformed by the internal slave trade in the North Atlanti

Chapter 2 shows how the daily work of maritime slaves alongside sailors and servants permanently altered both the plantation slave system and the export economy of South Carolina, making them more reflective of African and African American cultural forms. Craig T. Marin demonstrates that the constant mobility of enslaved boatmen, sailors, and dockworkers, together with their interactions with other workers, allowed the enslaved boatmen to create an environment of autonomy that challenged the system of slavery and questioned the frontiers of acceptable behavior within and outside of the work environment. Illuminating various aspects of slave resistance developed by enslaved waterfront workers, Marin’s study brings to light a group of enslaved men that has received very little attention from North Atlantic scholars.

In chapter 3, “ ‘An Act of Deportation’: The Jamaican Maroons’ Journey from Freedom to Slavery and Back Again, 1796–1836,”Jeffrey Fortindiscusses how the Trelawney Maroons fought and negotiated with the British to preserve a certain idea of community. Deported from Jamaica to Nova Scotia, then from Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone, and finally back to Jamaica, the Maroons reversed a centuries-old route of captivity in their voyages across the Atlantic, all the while reinventing themselves through intercultural encounters and exchanges. This chapter contributes to the understanding not only of the interactions between the British and the growing free black population (whose status was changing in that time period) but also of the various forms of resistance and migration that developed during the eighteenth-century in the English-speaking North Atlantic world.

The second part of the book, Paths to Freedom, investigates the effects of the transition from slavery to freedom in the United States, the French West Indies, French Guiana, and Brazil. Focusing on the various dimensions of Atlantic legal traditions (French, British, and Luso-Brazilian), the chapters in this section explore how colonial and former colonial societies dealt with the abolition of slavery. Examining