The Voyage of the Slave Ship Hare: A Journey into Captivity from Sierra Leone to South Carolina

by Sean M. Kelley

Overview

From 1754 to 1755, the slave ship Hare completed a journey from Newport, Rhode Island, to Sierra Leone and back to the United States—a journey that transformed more than seventy Africans into commodities, condemning some to death and the rest to a life of bondage in North America. In this engaging narrative, Sean Kelley painstakingly reconstructs this tumultuous voyage, detailing everything from the identities of the captain and crew to their wild encounters with inclement weather, slave traders, and near-mutiny. But most importantly, Kelley tracks the cohort of slaves aboard the Hare from their purchase in Africa to their sale in South Carolina. In tracing their complete journey, Kelley provides rare insight into the communal lives of slaves and sheds new light on the African diaspora and its influence on the formation of African American culture.

In this immersive exploration, Kelley connects the story of enslaved people in the United States to their origins in Africa as never before. Told uniquely from the perspective of one particular voyage, this book brings a slave ship's journey to life, giving us one of the clearest views of the eighteenth-century slave trade.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469654768
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	08/01/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	652,512
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Sean M. Kelley is senior lecturer in history at the University of Essex.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Sean Kelley successfully explores a single ship and its forced migration of Africans to South Carolina as a means to understand slavery and the reduction of Africans to a life of bondage in North America. The book adds to the tradition of works that attempt to break the silence about the individual lived experiences of 'slaves' who came from Africa. The scholarship here is impeccable.—Paul Lovejoy, York University

Sean Kelley uses a single voyage to re-create the experience of the slave trade for the 200 or so blacks and whites directly affected by this transatlantic venture on a small sloop. Incredibly, in this intensive study of the Hare, Kelley is able to keep the big picture and the context clear on every page. A wide range of readers will draw on this book, as it is one of the very few successful microhistories in any field.—David Eltis, Emory University

Editorial Reviews

03/28/2016
Kelley, senior lecturer in history at the University of Essex, England, uses a single trip of the sloop Hare to illuminate the day-to-day experience of life on board the thousands of slave ships that made the “Middle Passage” across the Atlantic. This particular voyage of the Hare, which transported 72 captives from Sierra Leone to South Carolina in 1754–1755, was “the most thoroughly documented slaving voyage to 18th-century North America,” producing unusually detailed records in relation to the nature of the captured African men and women and their fates on arrival in the plantation South. From these documents, Kelley illuminates the financial and logistical workings of the trade in human beings, as well as the persistence of the Mande captives and the ways in which they retained or altered elements of their culture in a new and intensely challenging environment. He deftly traces these people’s fates—their capture inland, their transportation to the Sierra Leone coast, and their torturous voyage across the Atlantic to Charleston—in combination with those of the captain and crew of the Hare. Kelley offers readers a devastating picture of the practices that ravaged West African societies while forming the foundation of colonial America’s economy. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Offers readers a devastating picture of the practices that ravaged West African societies while forming the foundation of colonial America's economy.—Publishers Weekly

An important book that not only shows how the slave trade operated, but also provides a clearer picture of the victims' origins, language, and methods of survival.—Kirkus Reviews

Kelley's extensive research and use of deductive reasoning has crafted a remarkably detailed narrative of the voyage from beginning to end. . . . Very strongly recommended.—Civil War News

A well-researched account of a slave ship that highlights the larger experience of those involved in the transatlantic slave trade. Recommended.—CHOICE

Performs a feat of historical forensics. . . . Tells the story of [the enslaved peoples'] voyage on the Hare and recovers their identities as people, not just slaves.—Zocalo Public Square

Possibly the best book on a single slave voyage. . . . Paints on a human scale the larger picture of forced Atlantic passages. . . . Provides rich details about how the slave sale took place and who the purchasers were.—William and Mary Quarterly

An innovative and timely addition to the historiography of the Atlantic slave trade. . . . A synthesis of the cast and intricate worlds across continents that produced one of the great tragedies in world history.—H-Net Reviews

Kelley's book is the best biography of a slave ship that sailed from British North America.—Journal of African History

A deeply researched and elegantly written book that takes full advantage of one of micro-history's greatest strengths — capturing a sense of historical events unfolding in a real world for real people.—Reviews in American History

From the Publisher

2016-02-09
A history of how captives purchased in Africa for transport on the slave ship Hare managed to maintain a community after being sold into slavery. What information is available pertains to the Newport, Rhode Island, ship owned by the brothers Samuel and William Vernon and captained by Caleb Godfrey. Rhode Island was the slave-trading capital of British America, and the selling of slaves was Newport's primary economic activity. No logbook survives of this voyage, from 1754 to 1755, and Kelley (History/Univ. of Essex; Los Brazos de Dios: A Plantation Society in the Texas Borderlands, 1821-1865, 2010, etc.) had to piece together information based on similar voyages. He admits that he could never identify the captives either by name or birthplace, since much of what we know comes from the nonenslaved. Kelley chronicles their fates from the viewpoints of the ship's master, those in Africa who provided the captives, and those who eventually sold them in South Carolina. Godfrey sailed to what was called Upper Guinea and procured his cargo, not from a single purveyor but from private traders up and down the coast. Although slaves were taken from different villages, many shared knowledge of the broad group of Mande languages, which gave them at least a sense of community. After buying a few dozen slaves, the Hare crossed to Barbados in only 20 days and then to Charles Town, where the slaves were sold, either by auction or by "scramble," where buyers just grabbed those they wanted. The most interesting part of the book is the author's discussion of the attempts—and successes—by these slaves, either in plantations or the city, to stay in contact with their shipmates and with those who spoke Mande. An important book that not only shows how the slave trade operated, but also provides a clearer picture of the victims' origins, language, and methods of survival.

Kirkus Reviews