39 pages • 1 hour read
Stephanie E. SmallwoodSaltwater Slavery: A Middle Passage from Africa to American Diaspora
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2007A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Introduction-Chapter 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Introduction Summary
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses slavery, abuse, and suicide. This guide uses the word “slave” in quotation only.
The introduction to Saltwater Slavery describes the arrival of ships bearing enslaved people during the spring and summer of 1721. Smallwood describes records kept by the merchants and colonial authorities to monitor international commerce and track the flow of commodities. Embedded in those records are “the elements of another narrative” (2): that of the individuals who have had their personhood stripped from them, as they have been brought through the Middle Passage to be enslaved and sold. Specifically, Smallwood analyzes the records of England’s Royal African Company from 1675 to 1725 to extrapolate “the human story of the Atlantic slave trade” and give agency to enslaved African people (5).
The term “saltwater” was a pejorative used by American-born enslaved people to describe those who were newly arrived from Africa. As Smallwood depicts through a quote from Edward Long, who observed American-born enslaved people referring to new African arrivals as “salt-water Negroes” in 18th-century Jamaica (7), the term demonstrates an awareness by the American-born enslaved people of the problems of continued forced migration in immigrant communities that were attempting to put down roots. “Saltwater” was a continual reminder of the captivity, commodification, movement, and enslavement of African peoples. Saltwater slavery, then, encapsulates the forward movement of a forced, one-way migration and how it shaped a diaspora.
Chapter 1 Summary: “The Gold Coast and the Atlantic Market in People”
By the 18th century, the trade of enslaved people had expanded exponentially, and a ship departing from the Gold Coast made landfall at any number of American destinations, including Jamaica, the Dutch Guiana colonies, and Barbados. Smallwood explains the rise of the area known as the Gold Coast—“the whole region from Axim (just west of Cape Three Points) to the Volta River, encompassing 230 miles” (12). Portuguese explorers “discovered” a place where gold could be exchanged for goods made of cloth and metal. They, along with other Europeans, set up trading posts in the area. This exchange of commerce and culture coincided with a shift from nomadic hunter-gatherer communities to agrarian settlements and changed every facet of African life in the region.
According to Smallwood, trading enslaved people played a crucial role in the development of Afro-European commercial relations. From the beginning, the Gold Coast imported people enslaved elsewhere in Africa from the Spanish and Portuguese traders. In the first half of the 17th century, however, this trade almost completely disappeared from the Gold Coast due to the decline in the number of people being enslaved and imported. It was only around the turn of the century, with the establishment of sugar plantations in Brazil and “the decision to exploit Africa rather than indigenous Indian labor to run them” (16), that the ships returned to the Gold Coast with a new purpose: to obtain enslaved people for labor.
The transformation of the Gold Coast from importer of people from elsewhere to exporter of its indigenous people stemmed from changes in the political apparatuses of the region and the integration of the Gold Coast into the Atlantic market economy. Prisoners of war were previously executed to neutralize any potential future threats. However, the trade of enslaved people provided another means of neutralization with the bonus of commercial value. The sale of enslaved people would allow for the purchase of European goods and weapons. These weapons and the monetary proceeds allowed for territory increases and political centralization for the various states (chiefly Denkyira, Akwamu, and Asante) that vied for place and power in the region. Enslaved people soon became the region’s main export, and in the first half of the 18th century, the Gold Coast became one of the principal suppliers of enslaved African people to other Atlantic markets.
Introduction-Chapter 1 Analysis
In Saltwater Slavery, Smallwood uses the historical record to recreate the lives of early enslaved African people from the Gold Coast. The documentation she uses comes from England’s Royal African Company and includes voluminous accounting documentation kept in the regular course of business, such as ledgers and bills, as well as correspondence between and among trading factories along the Gold Coast and employees stationed in London, Africa, and the Americas. There are very few records available from early enslaved people themselves, as many of them did not have the means or the ability to keep such records. Smallwood’s use of evidence therefore highlights The Historical Silencing of Marginalized Voices. However, from the mundane details found in business records, Smallwood gleans details about the enslaved people’s experiences. For example, Edward Long’s observations in 18th-century Jamaica indicate that enslaved African people held themselves in higher esteem than the new arrivals from Africa, whom they disparaged as “salt-water Negroes” (7). Smallwood explains that this term illustrates the development of the trade of enslaved people. Long’s emphasis is not on the African background of the enslaved people, or even the horrors of the Middle Passage, but his account provides a picture of enslaved people’s lives—“a place, a time, and an experience that does not otherwise figure in the archival record” (8). This introduces one of Smallwood’s aims in the text: to recenter the experience of enslaved people in the historical record.
Smallwood begins the reconstruction of the journey of the early enslaved African people from the Gold Coast by providing some of the history of Afro-European trade relations. This section constitutes exposition for the text. She also discusses the socioeconomic and political upheaval in the African landscape that was already in motion, the various states that were vying for power, and how the Atlantic commerce expedited the changes. Slavery, Smallwood explains, was a preexisting institution on the Gold Coast.
However, she details the Gold Coast’s change from importer of enslaved African people to exporter of enslaved people. Due to the expansion and consolidation of power by various states, there was an influx of prisoners of war. Those in power saw an opportunity in the trade of enslaved people and found another use for their prisoners—one that would accomplish two things at once. First, it would neutralize the threat of enemies in their midst. Second, the sale of captives would provide a source of income that would allow them to purchase European goods. Of particular interest were European firearms, which changed the way that wars were fought on the Gold Coast; these wars, in turn, brought about a centralization of power.
This sale of war captives to overseas enslavers changed what it meant to be enslaved. Though they were marginalized people and would never completely belong, enslaved people within the various states in Africa would assimilate into a community. The enslaved people who were being sold overseas experienced a different type of marginalization, one that severely isolated them and excluded them from any community. This “social death” would be the fate of many “saltwater slaves” (30). This point provides a background for one of the text’s central themes, Establishing Social Structures and Community Amid Forced Displacement.
