Description: Jane Webster develops a pioneering approach to 'rebuilding' British slaving vessels, creating a new archaeology of the Middle Passage. The book also examines multiple sources and accounts, questioning why the African Middle Passage experience remains elusive, even after decades of scholarship dedicated to uncovering it.
Review Quotes: "This is a well-researched, thorough, and detailed volume, supplemented with illustrations, maps, and copious references. Highly recommended." -- Choice
"It is, in short, an intellectually challenging book and will doubtless encounter doubters. But I was won over by the sheer weight of information revealed and by the author's persuasive style." -- JAMES WALVIN, Family & Community History"Materializing the Middle Passage is a unique examination of the historical archeology ofvessels employed by British shippers to conduct African captives to the Americas. Whilefocused on the eighteenth-century British Atlantic, the book brings significant informationand scholarly interventions from the Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Danish Atlanticinteractions before and after the eighteenth century to make it a more global history withoutshowcasing it as such." -- Alex Borucki, Journal of Maritime Archaeology"It is worth the wait, however, and all the detours are interesting. Materializing the MiddlePassage brings together research on art history, maritime archaeology and history from all around the Atlantic, for fresh insights in a well-established field. Scholars approaching the book from any of these perspectives and any geographic corner of the Atlantic are sure to find much that is new and stimulating in this wide-ranging, robustly researched and compellingly argued book." -- Antiquity"Materializing the Middle Passage is nonetheless essential reading for anyone who wants to better understand the crucial role that slave ships played in animating the Atlantic World, and the harrowing experiences of the millions of Africans whowere forcibly transported aboard these vessels." -- Nicholas Radburn, International Journal of Maritime HistoryA short review cannot do justice to the rich content of this book (or the scope of its bibliography), nor the deftness with which Webster makes her case. Suffice it to say that Materializing the Middle Passage will be an essential point of reference for students of Atlantic slavery.-- Chris Evans, American Historical Review"Materializing the Middle Passage is theoretically engaging and well illustrated. Webster uses particular artifacts and museum collection pieces as symbolic representations of the Middle Passage. More broadly, she seeks to interpret the merchant slaver as the material manifestation of an ideology that allowed humans to be viewed as a commodity. Those interested in the history of the slave trade will appreciate this unique historical archaeological approach." -- Frederick H. Smith, New West Indian Guide