History from below the water line: Sharks and the Atlantic slave trade

Abstract

This essay explores the role of sharks in the Atlantic slave trade. It draws on the testimony of ship captains, officers, sailors, and passengers to assess abolitionist claims that sharks followed slave ships across the Atlantic and feasted on human remains thrown overboard during the Middle Passage. The essay concludes that the abolitionists were essentially right and that the shark functioned as an integral part of a system of terror utilized by the slave ship captain. The abolitionist image of the marine predator in turn added effective horror to what would become a successful public agitation against the slave trade.

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