Dark Places of the Earth

May 4, 2015
Bryant (How Curious a Land), professor
of history at Georgia Southern University, centers his study on the little-known but significant Supreme Court case of the Antelope, a Spanish slave ship captured in 1820 by privateers and then seized by an American revenue cutter (an armed customs vessel) off the Florida coast. Although slavery was still legal in the U.S., the Atlantic slave trade had been outlawed for nearly 20 years. The Antelope decision would set an important precedent on questions of property rights, international law, and the very idea of natural rights. The court upheld the principle that slaves, though human beings, were also property, reinforcing the “divisions that would tear the nation apart.” Whereas the justices refused to restore the captives’ liberty, Bryant’s aim is to restore their agency by delving into
the documents generated by the case and following the path of the enslaved from Africa into the “wild and lawless” Atlantic world. The nature of the sources, unfortunately, makes it difficult for him to uncover more than brief glimpses of the captives’ individual experiences. Bryant succeeds in locating American pro- and antislavery efforts within a context of events across Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean, making this a valuable piece
of 19th-century history.

April 15, 2015
The little-known story of a slave ship, the fate of its captives, and its place in American history. In 1820, the Spanish slave ship Antelope was captured off the coast of Africa by privateers who operated in the murky world between state-sanctioned raiding and piracy. To the Antelope's hold they added slaves captured from other ships and then, with more than 300 enslaved Africans, set sail back across the Atlantic. In this meticulous account, Bryant (History/Georgia Southern Univ.; How Curious a Land: Conflict and Change in Greene County, Georgia, 1850-1885, 2004) describes how the Antelope was seized by a Navy revenue cutter near Florida, thus setting off a series of trials that would have a profound impact on the direction of American history. Although United States law banned the slave trade, the fate of the Antelope's captives was subject to fierce legal debate. Bryant traces the Antelope case from proceedings in Savannah to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Francis Scott Key, better known today as the author of "The Star-Spangled Banner," argued to free the captives and return them to Africa. This legal odyssey lasted eight years and, all the while, the Antelope's captives lived and labored as slaves, dying from overwork and disease in large numbers, until their case was finally resolved. Bryant's familiarity with admiralty law and the slave trade makes him an able guide through this complex and often confusing tangle of legal and moral issues, which general readers may find difficult to parse. He writes with compassion for the African captives-most of whom were children and teenagers-and convincingly argues for the importance of the Antelope case as a flash point in the deepening conflict over slavery. A richly documented work that restores the Antelope to its central place in the long, grim history of the Atlantic slave trade.

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Starred review from June 1, 2015
In 1820, the Spanish-chartered slave ship Antelope was captured off the African coast by legally sanctioned privateers. After a voyage across the Atlantic that included multiple stops at Latin American ports, the ship was stopped, boarded, and seized by American sailors off the Florida coast. On board were the crew, many of whom spoke English, and approximately 270 African slaves. Since 1808, the U.S. had banned the Atlantic slave trade, but slavery within the U.S. was thriving. So what was to be done with these Africans? Initially confined in an open encampment in Savannah, Georgia, they are the subject of this detailed and fascinating account. As the case became, inevitably, the subject of complicated and laborious legal disputes, the Africans suffered and their ranks were reduced by hardships and diseases. Eventually, the case went to the Supreme Court, then headed by Chief Justice John Marshall. The cause for the liberation of the slaves was passionately defended by Francis Scott Key now more celebrated for his poem upon which was based The Star-Spangled Banner. The court was compelled to confront a clash between property rights and natural rights that went to the heart of our notions of liberty, and the case strongly influenced the more-publicized Amistad trial 15 years later. This is a superb examination of an obscure but important episode in the struggle against slavery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

February 15, 2015

A professor at Georgia Southern University who specializes in slavery and constitutional law, Bryant has written an instructive book about an incident and trial that informed the far better known Amistad case. In 1820, when the slave ship Antelope was captured off the Florida coast, the slave trade was illegal--but in half the United States, slavery was not. Were the 300 Africans aboard to be considered slaves, then, and, if so, to whom did they belong? Bryant presents a broadened picture of the transatlantic slave trade while illuminating a legal battle with huge moral implications.

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April 15, 2015

The Slave Trade Act of 1819 and the Piracy Act of 1820 were laws enacted by Congress to dissuade U.S. citizens from participating in the international slave trade. These laws were put to the test in the 1825 Supreme Court case The Antelope, 23 U.S. 66. Bryant (history, Georgia Southern Univ.; How Curious a Land) charts the international slave trade through the story of the Antelope, a slave ship captured in the waters of Florida in 1820. Found on the ship were approximately 300 slaves. Since slavery in the South was legal, but the slave trade was not, it was left to the courts to determine the fate of the captives. Chief Justice John Marshall determined that although slavery was morally repugnant, the Supreme Court viewed the issue as a property rights case. If the slave trade was legal in the home country of the traders, then their activities were not illegal within U.S. waters. In the end, Marshall freed most of the slaves by transporting them to Liberia. The case would later prove influential to the better-known United States v. The Amistad (1941). VERDICT This excellent study is highly recommended for readers interested in the legal history of slavery in the United States. It should be read alongside Marcus Rediker's The Amistad Rebellion. [See Prepub Alert, 2/2/15.]--John R. Burch, Campbellsville Univ. Lib., KY

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.