David Richardson Shipboard Revolts Summary

When The records of the Atlantic slave Trade is reflected upon ,the impacts of shipboard revolts is often times overseen .Although these revolts did in fact have an immense effect on the economic political and social & economic views of the Slave trade and history in the world. In David Richardson’s “shipboard revolts,African Authority,and the Atlantic slave trade”.He brings into view the fluctuating causes and effects of shore based, and shipboard insurrection on the slave trade, along with the importance that the African Authority was to those revolts. Richardson serves as a professor of economics and international course ,which grants him reliability to all of his claims and supports his opinions.Because of this his occupation it offers

him a profusion amount of education on the countries in which were involved in the Atlantic Slave Trade.

Richardson reveals the indispensable impacts of slave rebellions , African authority on the slave trade, by painting out the problem that came from the specific Revolt, along with the progress. The article was written to acknowledging the profuse factors & causes and that lead to the Slaves revolt. The central argument of this article is how the rebellious purpose of slaves completely change the structure of the Atlantic slave trade. To validate the author's argument he made use of different primary sources to support his argument and claims. Some of which include “The New Account of some parts of Guinea ,Letters in West Africa and the slave trade , And the Slave Trade, African slaves and the demography of the Caribbean to 1750”( Richardson,2001,pg.69-74). Richards includes these sources in order to provide the reader with an abundance of information on what was going on the shore & on ship of the slave trade.Richards is very tedious when implementing his reasonings. This is demonstrated by the way the he present his points in seamless sequence. He starts by explaining his knowledge and research done over the Atlantic Slave Trade, “ Information about revolts

derives primarily from European ship records” (Richardson,2001,pg.72). This way of presentation helps the author in drawing a conclusion. Which serves as an in depth analysis to understand the patterns and causes of the revolts on slave ships. Since, throughout Africa ,slave rebellion seemed to vary on many different elements.In the analysis the author uncovers the factor involving leadership, time of revolt and any other thing involving a group that might cause an effusion of a violent revolt. The authors finding show the consistency rebellious in the time of the slave trade.This article was presented as a technical article due to the fact that it contained an abundance of facts and data. Rather than the author stating his opinion. Richardson article provides present day findings along with primary accounts from the past to credit his information.

Throughout this article there are many strengths being shown,one of the most useful is the well evaluated research that is provided by Richardson.Richardson closely evaluates each piece of information that he inputted into article this makes all of his claims convincing to the reader.

The information mention by the article provides a better understanding about the rebellion patterns and dealings of the slave trade. To put into perspective it states” an observer accounted a revolt in which 80 slaves died to novice ships master’s purchase of 300 spaces seized in one community”( Richardson, 2001,pg7). This shows how the Specific details about specific regions that were involved in the trade helped make Richardson claim way more convincing.Richeson have many high point throughout his article. However, which is the filter sufficiently discuss the overall impact that the slave trade had on the world. Instead of addressing The overall impact he clings to the topic of the Revolts patterns trying to analyze what factors contributed to The slaves wanting to revolt. Richardson elaborates on this topic and begins to repeat himself. To bring to perspective he states” American buyers enslaved Africans in terms of ethnicity of their coastal region or rebellious nature of some ethnic groups“ ( Richardson , 2001, p.81) .Further into the article Richardson states a similar quote it reads “Europeans shippers believed that the members of some ethnic groups were more prominent to rebel then

others“ (Richardson,2001,p.83) .These quotes were just a few of many repeated statements this became a limitation in the article by failing to mention the impacts of The Slave Trade on a global scale.

In conclusion, after reading and analyzing each part of the article it became evident that slave revolts and African authority played a tremendous roles during the Atlantic Slave Trade .This article provided an abundance amount of research and helps the reader develop a deeper understanding of the intentions and factors behind the slave rebellions. This would especially be beneficial to any historian who is studying or researching the history of slaves or slave rebellion, being that it provides a ample amount of causes of shipboard & shore based revolts. Due to the thoroughness and structure of the article this article has a high eminence than most other accounts in this field .