Final Passages: Slave Trading Within and Between American Colonies

What happened after enslaved Africans stepped off the ships that carried them across the Atlantic?

• For years, historians assumed that most were purchased by local slaveholders for work on nearby plantations
• But many buyers of slaves in the Americas were merchant speculators who put captives back aboard ships for long journeys between colonies
• These “final passages” added hardships for the captives, and studying them complicates our understanding of what was gained at the expense of enslaved peoples freedom

Dr. Greg O’Malley is a historian who came to UCSC in 2009

• He teaches courses on slavery, early American society, race, and world history
• His book, Final Passages: The Intercolonial Slave Trade of British America, 1619-1807, received awards from the American Historical Association, the Association of Caribbean Historians, and the Southern Historical Association
• It explores an overlooked aspect of the slave trade -the further forced migrations of hundreds of thousands within the Americas, after surviving the infamous Middle Passage across the Atlantic