Amistad

The 1839 Amistad revolt and the fate of the African slaves on board are well documented in books and in a blockbuster film. Michael Zeuske adds a new dimension to this history: the story of the people behind the Amistad. Based on his discovery-in previously unknown collections in Cuba and Spain-of the captain's logbook, the cook's notes, and the merchants' ledgers and correspondence, he paints an eye-opening portrait of the slave trade between Africa and the Spanish Caribbean. After the British Empire abolished the slave trade in 1808 and enforced the ban with warships, slave traders in Africa, Spanish and Cuban ship captains and financiers, and international merchants created a hidden network based on forged documents and well-placed bribes.It lasted until 1886 and ensnared hundred of thousands of slaves smuggled from Africa to the Caribbean, mostly to Cuba, and tens of thousands of slaves who were smuggled from Cuba to the United States. Zeuske reveals these secrets for the first time and offers a new historical framework for our understanding of the Amistad story.

"Zeuske has patiently and elegantly recovered crucial aspects of the context in which the Amistad rebellion took place and linked them to broader processes and events from Africa and Europe to the Americas and the Caribbean. [...]The book is an expanded English edition of Zeuske’s Die Geschichte der “Amistad”, published in 2012. The excellent translation by Steven Rendall makes it a very readable book that will be accessible to wide audiences, scholars specialized in slavery and Atlantic studies, and students at all levels." - New West Indian Guide, 91 (2017)"Indeed, the greatest strength of this book is its author’s unrivaled knowledge of previously unmined Cuban archival records, which help shine bright new light on underappreciated aspects of the Amistad story."  - Journal of African History, 59.1 (2018)

Michael Zeuske is a Latin American history specialist who has held the position of fellow at many leading research institutions, including Yale University, USA and the University of Michigan, USA. He is also an expert in the twentieth-century slave trade, and is the author of Black Caribbean: Slaves, Slavery and Emancipation Cultures.