From no return: The Slave Wrecks Project and the 221-year journey of the slave ship São José

Of all the shipwrecks that have been pulled from the sea by archaeologists, only one, the São Jose, is a slave ship. And yet scholars have now documented more than 38,000 slave ship voyages, and at least 1,000 slave ships are known to lie beneath the seas. Stephen Lubkemann heads a worldwide Slave Wrecks Project that collaborates with communities from which slaves were taken and with historians and ethnographers around the world. The emerging picture is of a vast slaving economy that fueled the growth of global trade. He will explain the growing evidence that the slaving was in fact a cornerstone of modernization, fueling the growth of globalization as well as our own nation. The Slave Wrecks Project is also an effort to change how science is done. Participating communities in Mozambique, Senegal, Brazil and Cuba are being invited to set the project’s agenda and are engaging in land-based archaeology to find the roots and manifestations of slavery on the ground.

Social media hashtag: #SlaveWrecks