Description
TITLE: Marcus Rediker, The Slave Ship: A Human History, (New York: Penguin, 2007)
Use parenthetical citation: According to the author, the many different actors in the drama surrounding the slave ship saw the vessel as a “strange and potent combination of the war machine, mobile prison, and factory” (9).
Rediker’s thesis is related to the “violence of abstraction.” What does he mean by this term and what is his thesis? How does he counter the “violence of abstraction?” (hint: pg. 12)
Although Rediker’s book is titled The Slave Ship, his scholarship is actually about the people involved with the slave ship. What are the four “human dramas” he describes and who are the actors?
Elaborate briefly on these four dramas- be sure to include the actors and how they related to one another.
Who are “the greedy robbers” in the slave ship drama? Briefly describe the role of “the greedy robbers” in Rediker’s narrative.
Rediker states “I offer this study with the greatest of reverence for those who suffered almost unthinkable violence, terror, and death, in the firm belief that we must remember that such horrors have always been, and remain, central to the making of global capitalism” (13). Does this personal statement about his motives to help or hinder his scholarship? Why or why not?