The
15-month voyage of the slave ship The Diligent from France to West Africa
and then to the Caribbean is described in a journal kept by the ship's 26-year-old
First Lieutenant. In studying this journal and related materials, Robert Harms,
Professor of History at Yale University, deals not only with the Americas
as recipient of slaves but also with Africa as the supplier. He further explains
justification among Europeans in the buying and selling of people because
of the indispensable need for their services in the cultivation of sugar,
tobacco, indigo and other crops. Using slides of maps, drawings and documents,
Dr. Harms explores the ideas, practices and personalities that animated the
slave trade and shaped the emerging Atlantic world in the 18th century.
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