The Bonds of Freedom: Liberated Africans and the End of the Slave Trade

Historian Richards (Black Atlantic) offers an eye-opening look at the fates of captives freed by maritime patrols after the U.S. and U.K. abolished the Atlantic slave trade in 1807. The trade continued clandestinely, so in the 1830s the British began issuing prize money for captured slave ships. This created a new system of exploitation, the author reveals, citing the case of the slave ship Progreso, wherein the “prize crew” who took over the ship forced the supposedly liberated captives—most of them children—back into the hold and flogged them for stealing water. By the time the Progreso docked in Cape Town, 177 of the liberated Africans—39.6% of the total—were dead. Once dropped in a random harbor town, getting emancipation papers required freed captives to find a court that would accept jurisdiction and declare the ship’s capture legal—no easy feat, given the onerous burden of proof. Moreover, freed captives were often required to be indentured for up to 14 years, resulting in further exploitation, including indentured freedwomen being forced to marry men at their contract owner’s behest. Throughout, the author draws canny links to the era’s macroeconomic shift from the slave trade to colonization—indeed, he notes, Britian used protecting Africans from slavery as an explicit justification for colonizing West Africa. The result is a savvy juxtaposition of individual lives and larger historical trends. (Sept.)