About this book:

*The Atlantic Passage* provides a comprehensive human and economic history of the transatlantic slave trade, framing it as a sophisticated global system that integrated the economies and cultures of Africa, Europe, and the Americas. The book moves from the pre-contact societies of West and West Central Africa to the development of the "Atlantic Triangle," detailing how European capital and maritime technology harnessed African political dynamics and inland trade networks. By examining the cold logistics of shipping, insurance, and credit alongside the harrowing realities of the Middle Passage, the text highlights the chilling transformation of human beings into commodified capital and the immense wealth this extraction generated for the burgeoning capitalist world.

The narrative places a central focus on African agency and the internal dynamics of states like Asante, Dahomey, and Kongo, illustrating how they navigated, resisted, or harnessed the trade to build regional power. This political evolution was mirrored by the brutal "breaking-in" processes and plantation regimes in the Americas, where enslaved people were subjected to industrial-scale exploitation in sugar, cotton, and coffee production. Throughout, the book emphasizes the constant presence of resistance, ranging from subtle acts of sabotage and the preservation of African cultural identities to monumental events like maroonage and the Haitian Revolution, which fundamentally challenged the global slave system.

The later chapters analyze the complex transition from legal abolition to an era of illegal trade and persistent structural inequality. The book argues that the formal end of slavery did not erase its impact; instead, the "afterlives" of the trade manifested in systemic racism, economic disparities, and new forms of coerced labor like convict leasing and sharecropping. By interweaving quantitative data from shipping records with qualitative evidence from archaeology, oral traditions, and slave narratives, the book reconstructs a legacy of profound trauma and remarkable resilience. It concludes that the modern Atlantic world—its financial institutions, racial hierarchies, and vibrant diasporic cultures—remains inextricably linked to the centuries of forced migration and exploitation that constituted the Atlantic Passage.

What You'll Find Inside:

• The transatlantic slave trade operated as an integrated system linking African interiors to American markets through coastal forts, maritime circuits, and plantation economies.
• The book examines both the human dimension (capture, Middle Passage, resistance) and economic mechanics (pricing, finance, insurance) of the slave trade using interdisciplinary methods.
• African states were active participants who experienced state formation, political fragmentation, and militarization through their engagement with the Atlantic trade.
• Diasporic cultures emerged through syncretic processes, creating new religious, linguistic, and artistic traditions across the Americas that persist today.
• The trade's legacies endure in modern demographic structures, racial inequalities, and economic systems on both sides of the Atlantic, shaping contemporary global inequities.

Who's It For:

This book is intended for students, scholars, and researchers specializing in Atlantic history, African diaspora studies, economic history, or slavery studies. It will particularly benefit readers seeking a comprehensive, interdisciplinary analysis that connects human experiences with economic structures, political transformations, and cultural legacies across four centuries of transatlantic exchange. Academics and graduate students interested in methodological approaches to historical reconstruction will find value in its use of shipping records, archaeology, oral traditions, and demographic data.