The idea of the Black Atlantic as defined by our readings is valid, though the Gerzina essay does rely excessively, at least early on, upon symbolism and the superimposed idea of white “tourism” in the seventeenth century over the slave trade. The concept behind the term is concrete enough, and easy to follow. The Atlantic ocean was traversed by Africans in huge numbers during the centuries before, and the years immediately after the abolition of the slave trade in Great Britain. Right or wrong, the Atlantic sea lanes became the primary method with which Africans entered the larger global community, at least to a great extent. The slave trade was clearly responsible for much of this and in the worst of ways, ferrying human cargo under the most degrading of conditions across the ocean for profit and to supply colonial enterprises in the Caribbean and the Americas with laborers. For many Africans, this was the defining exodus from Africa itself, a forced journey under the very worst of circumstances.
What makes the Black Atlantic apt is the way in which the ocean became a beacon of freedom and a metaphor for liberty, a way for at least some itinerate Africans to experience a life other than slavery and servitude. Black sailors enjoyed a kind of lifestyle that was dramatically advanced from the conditions inflicted upon those who were taken across the Atlantic under duress. In this way, the Atlantic ocean serves as both the backdrop for depredations inflicted upon captive Africans during the peak years of the slave trade, and also as the primary zone of emancipation, at least to an extent, for Black seamen. The parallel is not lost upon Gerzina, who further transposes white narrative tales of early tourism and liberated travel over the dualistic nature of the Atlantic slave trade and the freedom offered by ships to Black sailors. The sad irony of tourism and slavery coexisting within the same environment is not lost upon the reader, or the historian, but the significance of the Atlantic in the African exodus, forced or not, is nonetheless valid and deserved.
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Like you, I too relied heavily on Gerzina's article, though I focused primarily on black intellectuals such as Nancy Gardner Prince and Moira Ferguson. As you related, it is important to observe the dramatic differences in the lives between black sailors such as Paul Cuffe and black intellectuals compared to the lives of the vast majority of Africans who found their lives irrevocably, and often tragically altered. One of your point struck me as especially important: the idea that the Atlantic became a metaphor for liberty and a beacon of freedom. As Gerzina noted, the Black Atlantic was not just a place of danger, displacement, and death, but also a route to independence and self-determination. While this was certainly the case for Black sailors and intellectuals, it was also true, to a much lesser extent, for a select group of slaves.
ReplyDeleteAnother issue I would like to discuss with you is the idea that the Black Atlantic fostered a sense of "Africanness" for the dispersed people of Africa. I found it interesting that Black sailors and intellectuals were "more self-consciously 'African" than were many slaves." The Black Atlantic helped to create the idea amongst some Black intellectuals that they were members of a black international community, which to me meant that they were defining themselves and their ethnicity rather than being defined by whites. I would also like to add that I found your writing style elegant, informative, and that it lend itself to serious intellectual discussion.