Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in History
Eighteenth Century ‘Prize Negroes’: From Britain To America, Charles R. Foy
Eighteenth Century ‘Prize Negroes’: From Britain To America, Charles R. Foy
Faculty Research & Creative Activity
Eighteenth-century Anglo-American prize systems were highly organized
enterprises for the provision of coerced labor. Offering whites opportunities to
participate in a lucrative market, they extended the reach of American slavery
beyond the shores of the Americas, reinforced slavery in North America and
greatly limited opportunities for freedom for black seamen. Although Americans
desired that their new nation provide greater individual liberty, the American prize
system applied the same presumption - that captured black mariners were slaves -
as had its British predecessor, resulting in the sale of hundreds of black seamen
into slavery.