The slave ship : a human history / Marcus Rediker

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Life, death, and terror in the slave trade -- The evolution of the slave ship -- African paths to the middle passage -- Olaudah Equiano: astonishment and terror -- James Field Stanfi Eld and the floating dungeon -- John Newton and the peaceful kingdom -- The captain's own hell -- The sailor's vast machine -- From captives to shipmates -- The long voyage of the slave ship brookes -- Epilogue: endless passage -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index.

For more than three centuries, slave ships carried millions of people from the coasts of Africa to the New World. Here, award-winning historian Rediker creates a detailed history of these vessels and the human drama acted out on their rolling decks. Rediker restores the slave ship to its rightful place alongside the plantation as a formative institution of slavery, as a place where a profound and still haunting history of race, class, and modern capitalism was made.--From publisher description.