Saltwater Slavery: A Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses slavery and abuse. This guide uses the word “slave” in quotation only.

Smallwood is an associate professor of history and comparative history of ideas at the University of Washington. Smallwood received her undergraduate degree from Columbia University and her doctorate from Duke University. Published in 2007, Saltwater Slavery was adapted from Smallwood’s 1999 dissertation “Saltwater Slavery” to coincide with the anniversary of the “Slave Trade Act,” first passed in 1807. This act ended the trade of enslaved people between British colonies, although it did not abolish enslavement in these areas or emancipate enslaved people. With this full text, Smallwood aims to “[bring] the people aboard slave ships to life as subjects in American social history” (3). Her goal in the text is to resist The Dehumanizing Effects of Commodification and counteract The Historical Silencing of Marginalized Voices.

Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797) was an abolitionist and writer of a popular autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789). This text details his life from his childhood in what is now known as Nigeria, to being trafficked to the Caribbean and enslaved, to achieving liberation.