Excellent addition to an important field of study.
Book review
of: Dark Places of the Earth: The Voyage of the Slave Ship Antelope
Author: Jonathan M. Bryant, professor of history at Georgia Southern University specializing in slavery, emancipation, and constitutional law.
Publisher: Liveright Publishing Group, a division of W.W. Norton & Company
Formats: Hardcover, eBook, Audio CD
Details: 376 pages with 47 pages of notes. Includes some drawings and photographs.
Johnathan Bryant does a very skilful job of shedding a bright light on a little known but extremely important event in American History. Meticulously researched, the author’s efforts show in graphic detail the plight of over 300 Africans brought to the shores of the United States by the slave ship Antelope. And in the process, he lays before readers the intricate legal wrangling that ended in Supreme Court rulings solidifying the rights of property over the natural rights of human beings, rulings that lasted for thirty-five years.
As the book title indicates, this is a dark tale, one that throws readers directly into the horrors of the slave trade and the institution of slavery as practiced during the early years of the republic. Author Bryant’s simple statistics of what remained of the Antelope’s starving and diseased human cargo when it finally arrived in Savannah, Georgia during the year 1820 give stark and concise testimony to the brutality of such transatlantic profit seeking voyages:
• Out of 331 people originally captured and put aboard the Antelope, only 258 remained alive – a 22% loss of life.
• 83% of the captives were under the age of 20.
• The average age of all the captives was 14.
• 106 were between the ages of 5 and 10.
• 8 were between the ages of 2 and 5. 2 and 5 (that is an intentional factual repeat)
For almost eight years after landing in the United States, the captives languished in servitude on Savannah plantations as if they had been bought and sold as slaves, which they were not. And after those eight years, most of those people who actually survived were legally enslaved and sent to Florida by Supreme Court rulings. Only a small group ended up being sent back to Africa where they faced severe hardships, disease and attack by the nearby native population.
Jonathan Bryant’s story of the multiple legal battles that caused the captives to wait nearly eight years is fascinating and so full of detail as to be almost overwhelming. But true to presenting the facts as he found them, the author offers readers these historical events in step-by-step fashion in order to leave no doubt about what happened. His 47 pages of notes at the end of the book speak to the incredible depth of his research.
One of the most telling scenes is when the Antelope case finally arrives at the Supreme Court of the United States in 1825, five years after the captives set foot in Georgia. The legendary John Marshall was Chief Justice and four of the justices were slave owners. The attorney for the supposed owners of the captives, Spanish and Portuguese citizens, was a slave owner as well. Enter the attorney for the government of United States trying to free the captives, Francis Scott Key. The same F.S. Key of the Star-Spangled Banner fame had slaves of his own. Slave ownership stood out on that day as a vivid yet unofficial finger pressing on the scales of justice.
This author’s work is beautifully organized, well written and thoroughly documented. It is an important scholarly work and should be read by those deeply interested in slavery, the slave trade, constitutional law, international law, and American politics during the first quarter of the 19th century.
Useful Links
YouTube video – interview with the author
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