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Atlantic World

The Sugar Act and the American Revolution

January 31, 2023 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Sugar Act and the American RevolutionThe initial Sugar Act of 1733 — also known as the Molasses Act — was designed to secure and encourage the trade of British colonies in the West Indies by placing prohibitive duties on the products of competing foreign colonies. The dramatic revision to that act in 1764 imposed duties for both revenue and trade regulation, in addition strengthening the laws of trade so as to tighten the connection between Great Britain and the colonies. [Read more…] about The Sugar Act and the American Revolution

Filed Under: Books, Food, History Tagged With: American Revolution, Atlantic World, Culinary History, Maritime History, Political History

Massacres & Migrants at Sea: Deadly Voyages To New York

January 11, 2023 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

Diagram (1787) of the Liverpool-launched slave ship BrookesThe 1840s brought about a transformation in the nature of transatlantic shipping. With the development of European colonial empires, the forced transportation of African slaves had become big business.

Liverpool was the focus of the British slave trade. As a result of crusading abolitionist movements and subsequent legal intervention, the brutal practice declined there during that decade. But more or less simultaneously a new form of people trafficking took its place. [Read more…] about Massacres & Migrants at Sea: Deadly Voyages To New York

Filed Under: Arts, History, New York City Tagged With: Abolition, Art History, Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic World, British Atlantic, British Empire, Immigration, Irish Immigrants, Legal History, London, Maritime History, natural disasters, New York City, Slavery, Transportation History

The First Slave Traders in New York

September 28, 2022 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

West India Company warehouse in Amsterdam. Engraving, ca. 1663.The first direct shipment of enslaved Africans arrived in New Amsterdam (now New York City) in 1655. The voyage of the White Horse came in the wake of significant changes in the Dutch Atlantic.  In this eessay, American historian Dennis Maika outlines how family and business connections shaped the development of a slave-trading center in Manhattan.

New Amsterdam’s residents would have immediately noticed something different about the arrival of the Witte Paert (White Horse) in the early summer of 1655. The stench of human excrement and illness emanating from the newly arrived “scheepgen” (small ship), left little doubt that a slaver had arrived after a long voyage. [Read more…] about The First Slave Traders in New York

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Atlantic World, Black History, Chesapeake, Dutch History, Economic History, Financial History, Legal History, Maritime History, Maryland, New Amsterdam, New Netherlands, New York City, New York Harbor, Slavery, Virginia

Missions and Mission Building in New Spain

July 27, 2022 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

ben franklins world podcast

In this episode of Ben Franklin’s World, Brandon Bayne, an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and author of the book Missions Begin with Blood: Suffering and Salvation in the Borderlands of New Spain (Fordham, 2021) joins host Liz Covart to investigate the work of Spanish missionaries and why this missionary work was carried out by just a few religious orders, namely the Franciscans and Jesuits. [Read more…] about Missions and Mission Building in New Spain

Filed Under: Books, History Tagged With: Atlantic World, Podcasts, Religious History, Spain

New Amsterdam & New York: What’s In A Name?

June 22, 2022 by Jaap Jacobs Leave a Comment

detail of the Figurative Map of 1614, with a triangular island labeled ManhatesThe small colonial town that the Dutch founded in North America was called New Amsterdam. We now know it as New York City. The story of how the name evolved has many twists and turns and is, in fact, a tale of war and peace. [Read more…] about New Amsterdam & New York: What’s In A Name?

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Atlantic World, Connecticut, Dutch History, Fort Amsterdam, Governors Island, Indigenous History, Long Island, Manhattan, New Amsterdam, New Netherland, New York City, Political History

Loyalism in the British Atlantic World

June 15, 2022 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

ben franklins world podcastIn this episode of the Ben Franklin’s World Podcast, Brad Jones, Professor of History at California State University, Fresno and author of the book, Resisting Independence: Popular Loyalism in the Revolutionary British Atlantic (Cornell, 2021), joins us to investigate what loyalists believed and how loyalism was not just a loyalty or ideology adopted by British Americans living in the 13 rebellious colonies, but by Britons across the British Atlantic World.  [Read more…] about Loyalism in the British Atlantic World

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: American Revolution, Atlantic World, Cultural History, Podcasts, Political History

Buried Pirate Treasure At Lake George?

May 18, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Howard Pyle's fanciful painting of Kidd burying treasure from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates: Fiction, Fact & Fancy Concerning the Buccaneers & Marooners of the Spanish Main, New York (1921)In his 1986 article “Treasure Seeking in the American Northeast, 1780-1830” for the American Quarterly historian Alan Taylor made the following observation:

“A canvas of travelers’ accounts, town histories, and other antiquarian sources for the American Northeast documents over forty incidents where groups of rural folk employed occult techniques to seek buried treasure, generally in very unlikely inland locales, and usually during the fifty years between 1780 and 1830. Most episodes involved small parties, handfuls of men bound to share equally in any discoveries. Tradition held that a minimum of three (a particularly magical number that occurs repeatedly in treasure lore) seekers was essential for a successful dig.” [Read more…] about Buried Pirate Treasure At Lake George?

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Atlantic World, Captain Kidd, Cultural History, Lake George, Maritime History

18th Century Merchant Shipping in the Atlantic

August 25, 2021 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

ben_franklins_worldBy the eighteenth century, the Atlantic Ocean had become a busy highway of ships crisscrossing its waters. 

What do we know about the ships that made these transatlantic voyages and connected the eighteenth-century British Atlantic world through trade, people, and information? [Read more…] about 18th Century Merchant Shipping in the Atlantic

Filed Under: Books, History Tagged With: Atlantic World, Economic History, Maritime History, Podcasts, Sailing, Transportation History

Slavery & Freedom in French Louisiana

August 11, 2021 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

ben_franklins_worldThe story of freedom in colonial New Orleans and Louisiana pivoted on the choices black women made to retain control of their bodies, families, and futures.

How did black women in colonial Louisiana navigate French and Spanish black and slavery codes to retain control of their bodies, families, and futures? [Read more…] about Slavery & Freedom in French Louisiana

Filed Under: Books, History Tagged With: Atlantic World, Colonialism, Cultural History, French History, Gender History, Podcasts, Slavery, Social History

Female Slaveholding in Jamaica

January 27, 2021 by Liz Covart Leave a Comment

ben_franklins_worldBook purchases made through this link support New York Almanack’s mission to report new publications relevant to New York State.

How did Jamaica grow to become the “crown jewel” of the British Atlantic World?

Part of the answer is that Jamaica’s women served as some of the most ardent and best supporters of the island’s practice of slavery.

[Read more…] about Female Slaveholding in Jamaica

Filed Under: Books, History Tagged With: Atlantic World, Podcasts, Slavery, womens history

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