Birth Story

Yes, I am well aware that it has been months since I updated anything. However, in my defense, I have been busy with moving, giving birth, and generally being kept up all night by a crying baby. But at last, as E sleeps a little more each night, I am catching up on things, including this blog. I figured I would start with the biggest addition of my life. My beautiful baby boy. Here is his story.

On Thursday night, February 5, 2009, I had to go to the bathroom a million times only to discover once there I had nothing to give to the waiting receptacle. Perhaps this is not the most glamorous beginning of a life, but it's the truth, and as a historian I must not waver from the truth. Anyway, I failed to realize this was the beginning of labor and kept trying to go back to sleep. Around 7:00am on Friday, February 6 I gave up and got up with my partner and we ate breakfast together. During this time, he received a phone call from his mother. His uncle had just passed away and since there were not enough young men from the family in Houston he was needed in Houston to be a pallbearer. But the catch was that she didn't know exactly when the funeral would be yet. This news could not have come at a worse time. I was already overdue and my OB was threatening to induce me anytime the next week, but no later than Wednesday. Not only could E decide to show up at anytime, but my doctor could insist I report to the hospital also. After the phone call, J, my partner, gently flicked my stomach. "You have a choice. Come out right now, or wait until next week." Unbelievably shortly thereafter, I felt a light cramp.

I didn't pay much attention to it at first. I had been cramping off and on the whole pregnancy. But I felt a second cramp shortly. This made me look at the clock. 15 minutes had passed. We laughed about it and did normal morning things. 15 mins later I had another light twinge. Hmmm...we joked, still not really believing it was going to happen today. He went to work and I stayed to finish the household chores. I called my mom and said "maybe" but warned her not to get excited. Then I fell asleep on the couch and was woken at approx 15-20 min intervals by stronger cramps. I know this because I could monitor the time by which shows were on when I would wake up. Frasier, 2 episodes of Will & Grace, and the Desperate Housewives. Ahhh, the romance of birth... I finally got up off the couch when the pains became more intense between the intervals. I could not tell you what I did during this time. I was talking to J occasionally on the phone. I told him I thought today was the day, but he didn't have to hurry home. At some point I went over to my mom's house across the street. I don't remember why I was there, but once there I was knocked to the floor by such a strong pain. I called J and said come home please. I told him I felt silly having him rush home when I wasn't in pain, but when I was, merciful Zeus, was it painful and I thought I might die! J came home right away.




He came home and started monitoring the time between contractions. I knew for sure now I was in labor. They were only 10 mins apart. J kept taking business calls during this time. He would often step out of the room to avoid transmitting my moans over the phone line. Sometimes I felt obligated to be quiet when I really wanted to scream. For a while I fantasized and focused about crushing his new nifty blackberry. Blah. Seriously, the pains were starting to be really painful now There was one particularly nasty contraction that had me on the floor crying, and this was the moment when I totally changed my birth plan of doing it naturally and without drugs - with the goal of timing it to give birth in the hospital parking lot to avoid unnecessary medical intervention. No, now it was just a waiting game until I could mercifully receive drugs. Good drugs. Fun drugs. Drugs to take away this awful pain.

We were finally able to head to the hospital around 7 o'clock Friday night. I was terrified walking in. I bit back tears, not because I was in pain this time, but because I was scared. I was not prepared mentally for a hospital birth. I had avoided imagining this moment in my head. Everything I had read was how dangerous hospitals were for babies and birthing mothers. But I hurt so bad. so bad.

The nurse assigned to me was my savior. Seriously. She made me so relaxed because she told me she had given birth to her third all natural. I felt like understood and she would watch out and not push unnecessary procedures on me. I trusted her so much and I gobbled down two proffered drugs. Unfortunately, despite now being in labor for 12 hours I had made NO progress. NONE. I was 100% effaced, but only 1 cm dilated. 1 centimeter! There was some talking about failure to progress and then the really awful contractions started. These contractions were painful, yes, but they were also accompanied by vomit and urine leakage. Fun. I had started throwing-up and peeing on myself while contracting! My wonderful nurse gave me some anti-nausea medication and let me rest and then came back to check on me. I had made some progress...some...like now I was at 2 cm. This time I received a shot of pain medication (since I had more than likely thrown up my Vicodin) It is about 10 at night and everything from this point until the pushing the next morning is kinda vague. I was really out of it for a while. At some point they gave me oxygen and turned me on my side because E's heart rate dropped. (I also got my epidural then because of what I assume was the possibility of emergency C-section. Later, when he was born, we found out he had the cord wrapped around his neck and didn't like the position I had turned). Thankfully, E's heart rate stabilized after they turned me and I managed to sleep some and the next time they checked me, around 4 am, I was 9 cm. Progress! They broke my bag of waters at this point - which i didn't protest because I knew he was coming soon now. We started pushing around 5:30 or 6 and I pushed! He was hung up on my public bone which took some time, but mostly, it took so long because my contractions had started to slow, and I was back to contractions only 7 -10 min apart. This is where my natural nurse comes in. She doesn't try to push Piticion or anything to speed up the process. E came at his own pace and she let him and I was eternally grateful for that. I even said so in between pushes. I had plenty of time to rest between them! Finally, at 7:02 am on Saturday, February 7, 2009 my E was born!

Dubois and his Avengers (unedited review)

Dubois, Laurent. Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004).


Laurent Dubois, a professor of History at Michigan State University, has published an impressive monograph with his 2004 work Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution. Working in the emerging field of Caribbean Studies, Dubois contributes to the scholarship a fascinating, well-written account of the only successful slave rebellion in the Americas. Apropos of the title, Dubois limits the scope of the work to the twelve years between 1791 and 1803 that the colony was in active rebellion. Despite the self-imposed time restraints, Dubois manages to incorporate larger philosophical issues of the age and touches on cultural occurrences specific to Haiti. It could be argued that Dubois’ purpose is not just to explain the facts of the revolution, but to place them in the larger context of the Age of Enlightenment and colonial occupation.

The work begins with a brief introduction about Haitian history up to the verge of revolution. The book then addresses how society was functioning at the time of revolution. It is here that a reader learns the intricate details about how slavery functioned in a day-to-day fashion on the French island. Dubois illustrates the abysmal conditions faced by Haitian slaves on the plantations and how colonial laws, such as the Code Noir, worked to keep the slaves isolated and subservient. Also introduced during this point in the work is a glimpse into the complicated racial hierarchy of Saint-Domingue, including how those with mixed-race ancestry and blacks who had been manumitted fit into the society.

In the third chapter, Inheritance, the book turns it attention to the philosophy of the age and addresses the role of Enlightenment in the rebellion. This is perhaps Dubois’ most interesting and important argument. Within the chapter he argues that the Enlightenment, and the ideas that were generated by it, had a direct impact on the trajectory of the Haitian revolution. The abolition movement, freedom, justice, liberty and democracy were all ideas popularized by the movement. Dubois explains that slave owners and other white leaders feared these ideas so much that they attempted to block the “import” of such concepts from the island. Restrictions on what (and who) could enter the country were enacted as a way to limit access to knowledge. Nevertheless, Dubois shows how such information and ideas trickled down into the slaves’ world. He is able to conclude that the inhabitants of Haiti who were in power saw these new ideas as a threat to the established order and believed these ideas to be responsible for the beginning stages of the rebellion. In supporting this correlation, Dubois quotes several primary sources that express such a worry, “People here are drunk with liberty […] the peril is great” (Dubois 76).

And although Dubois never argues the point, it could be inferred that the French Revolution itself is equally responsible for the Haitian Revolution. Throughout the book, the reader is shown the connections between the political upheaval of the founding country and the results of such changes in the colony. Administrators were constantly being replaced, and the orders and laws applicable to the island were shown to be equally inconsistent during this time. Whether or not France’s Declaration of the Rights of Man should be applied to the island was particular point of argument according to Dubois. Perhaps the reason Haiti was the only country with a successful slave rebellion was because Haiti was the only country rebelling against a country in the midst of its own social revolution. Indeed, later in the book, Dubois shows how the fighting between the French loyalists and French republicans was played out between the factions fighting for slaves’ independence in Haiti.

After such an informative and thought provoking chapter on the psychology of the island’s inhabitants, the book begins to change in tone with the fourth chapter, Fire in the Cane. This chapter outlines the earliest acts of rebellion the slaves undertook by burning the cane fields From this point forward, the ten remaining chapters are mostly concerned with battlefield mechanics. Dubois follows the battles of the revolution and the careers of the men fighting until the end of 1803. Descriptions of the battles that answer the four basic questions, who, what, where, and when are common. The role of military leaders is emphasized, and Louverture is highlighted throughout the remainder of the book. The importance of such a leader and the battles fought is not to be overlooked in book that is entitled “the Story of the Haitian Revolution”; however, such a concentration on the subject is incongruent with the beginning of the book. In the prologue, Dubois admits to having few primary military sources for anyone other than Louverture, but the disconnect between the beginning of the book and the end is greater than that of having few sources.

The start of the book promises a read full of fascinating tidbits and a wide swath of interdisciplinary information. For example he discusses subjects ranging from the role of interracial wet-nursing in society and the popular opinion on it to vegetables commonly grown in communal gardens - topics far removed from the battlefield. In this way, the book is straddling two worlds. The first half promises to tell the whole “story” of the revolution, while the second half only tells the warrior version of the “story”. By then end, the book flirts dangerously close to an example of imperial historical writing.

It should be kept in mind that there is nothing wrong with such an imperial presentation of information; however, this is not Dubois’ stated goal. In the prologue he expresses that the Haitian revolution is a “transcultural” event and stresses the transatlantic aspect of relations between France, Saint-Domingue, and Africa. While he does alert the reader to some hidden elements of interaction (home regions of Africa effected how certain slaves approached battlefield techniques), the bulk of the book focuses on the interplay between France and its rebellious colony driving the book away from a transatlantic, transcultural focus.

Despite the quibbles of where the book fits into the scope of historical scholarship, the book overall is a fascinating, well-executed work. Dubois’ work should be considered a significant contribution to the growing field of Caribbean Studies and welcomed into the small, but expanding, circle of works on the Haitian Revolution.

unedited Senbach review

Sensbach, Jon. Rebecca’s Revival: Creating Black Christianity in the Atlantic World. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005)


In his 2005 book, Rebecca’s Revival, religious historian Jon Sensbach reveals the history of a Caribbean missionary woman whose influence is critical to the establishment of Christianity among the slave populations of the Danish sugar islands. Beginning with her arrival as a mixed-race young slave on the island of St. Thomas in the 1720s, Sensbach creates an engaging biography that traces Rebecca Protten’s life from childhood to death. Included in her story is her involvement in the Moravian church and missionary work, and how her spiritual calling to missionary work allowed her to span the distance between three of the Atlantic continents. Furthermore, his microhistory of these Moravian missionaries serves to not only highlight the life of his protagonist, Rebecca, but also to explore the history of Black Christianity within slave societies and how those with mixed-race lineages sought to find a balance between white and black culture.
This multi-purpose layer to the book begins with the Prologue, where a reader learns that Sensbach will illustrate issues larger than just the routine biography of a religious leader, although the book does function on that level as well. In the prologue, Sensbach introduces three major issues that will affect Rebecca repeatedly throughout her life. The first is how the proselytizing of Christianity to African slaves was opposed by the white majority. The second is how Rebecca’s life is a uniquely transatlantic one. In other words, only in a transatlantic setting could a woman like Rebecca exist and accomplish what she did. Finally, the third major point Sensbach highlights is the isolation Rebecca, and later her husband, Christian Protten, experience in both white and black society from descending from a mixed race heritage in eighteenth century during the height of slavery.
After the prologue, the eight chapters of the book form the remainder of the work. These are arranged, as expected in a biography, in a chronological fashion. The first chapter introduces the attitudes and practices of the world Rebecca was born into, including an account of the neighboring island’s bloody slave rebellion which would haunt the imagination of white planters on St. Thomas. The second chapter introduces Rebecca herself and begins when she arrives on St. Thomas as a young girl and is sold into slavery. From them on, each chapter focuses on differing defining moments in Rebecca’s life such as, her conversion to the Moravian sect, marriage, and immigration to Europe and then later Africa. In addition to the physical details of her life, Sensbach includes in each of these chapters references to at least one of the previously discussed major themes and how they are influencing Rebecca’s life at that particular juncture.
Throughout the work, Sensbach does not seek to solve or even analyze to a great extent why these particular themes keep reoccurring in Rebecca’s life. Unlike in Robert Harms’ work, The Diligent, there are no large tangents on outside events or social forces to illustrate the themes. Large conclusions about how such themes impact society and their origins are completely missing from the work and not the focus, instead Sensbach concentrates solely on how such themes repeatedly impact and influence the direction of Rebecca’s life.
Such a minimalist approach mimics the way Sensbach also approaches the story of Rebecca’s life at its most basic retelling. He is careful, meticulously so, not to place words or feelings into his protagonist that he can not prove. Repeatedly throughout the text are places where Sensbach offers alternative explanations for behaviors or events. He is not afraid to point out to a reader where there are weaknesses or no evidence in the primary sources.
While this transparency protects Sensbach from any accusation of embellishing Rebecca’s feelings, as occurred with Natalie Davis’s Brentrande, it can also be labeled an overall weakness of the work. Being so careful to avoid personal opinion and any false impressions allows Sensbach to create a character that less than fully fleshed out. Readers are left with integral questions such as, does Rebecca like her husband(s), and how does she feel about living in Europe or Africa, and why was she so drawn to the sect in the first place? These are all fundamental questions that help define a personality, and being unable (or unwilling) to answer them leaves your subject less than fully developed.
While Sensbach may have some weakness in the biography aspect of the field, he more than makes up for it when you place the book in the overall context of the transatlantic historical studies. With the book, Sensbach has contributed most notably to the African aspect of transatlantic studies. Mostly ignored by other transatlantic historians, like Bernard Bailyn and Alfred Crosby, Sensbach tackles Africa without hesitation. He describes the sights, smells, and sounds of the fort Rebecca and her husband encounter when arriving to the continent. He talks about the languages and activities of the mixed-race children the couple has arrived to teach. He also goes into some detail about the line of succession common in some of the coastal African kingdoms and how such kingdoms interacted with the Danish Europeans inhabiting the fort. But perhaps most significant of all is when Sensbach offers up a small, easily overlooked argument about why Africa has been so ignored throughout history and even today in the field of transatlantic studies. Sensbach writes that Christian has at one point, “undercut the authority of European interpreters of Africa” by arguing against European evaluation and interpretation of African cultures in an African language book he had published in Denmark (220). Sensbach puts forth the idea that Christian believed, “African-centered knowledge had to lie at the heart of any discussion about Africa”, and that he was one of the first release into the collective consciousness the idea only native people could understand native culture enough to disseminate accurate information. This small idea Sensbach plants could be the key to understanding the lack of African focused work in the transatlantic field in modern scholarship.
Overall, Sensbach creates a work that unique in both its subject and its implications. Aside from telling the biography of a religious woman from the Caribbean, the author offers readers a chance to be introduced to larger themes of eighteenth-century history, and how they impacted the trajectory of a person’s life.

Caribbean Articles

Bogues, Anthony. “Writing Caribbean Intellectual History” Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism 26(June 2008) , 168-169.

-Discusses the difficulties of writing about intellectual ideas in the Caribbean, including black religious thought and expression. He also argues that the Caribbean needs to “decolonize” itself, but I’m not sure what that means!


Knox, John. “A Historical Account of St. Thomas, W.I.” (and incidental notices of St. Croix and St. John’s slave insurrection) (1852) via Sabin America Database at UTA.

-Okay, this one is just for fun. It’s a just a neat “primary source” (100 years later) account of the slave rebellion.



Schmidt, Bettina E. “The Creation of Afro-Caribbean Religions and their Incorporation of Christian Elements: A Critique against Syncretism.” Transformation Vol. 23 Issue 4 (Oct 2006) , p236-243

-Examines the creation of Afro-Caribbean religions and their incorporation of Christian elements. Santeria is the main focus, but she also addresses how the transatlantic slave trade impacted the spread of religious ideas.



Soars, Judith. “Religion and Poverty in the Caribbean” Peace Review Vol. 20 No. 2 (2008) , 226-234.

- Discusses the success of efforts to blend secular philosophy and the legacy of Christian doctrine in the Caribbean world. She argues that the Christian tradition reinforces poverty through social and institutional forces. Nevertheless, the essay gives a good idea of the legacy of Christianity in the Caribbean.




Sensbach, John. “Religion and the Early South in an Age of Atlantic Empire,” Journal of Southern History 73 (2007) , 631-42.

-The article is about “The South”, but gives a good overview of the state of religious historical scholarship in regards to Black Christianity, Southern Evangelicals, and the Anglican Church. Sensbach states that these elements are often neglected in the history of American religious thought because of our “Puritan Pride”. I also thought it worth noting Sensbach describes our area of study as an “Atlantic Empire” as opposed to some variation of “Transatlantic”




Smith, Robert. “Slavery and Christianity in the British West Indies” Church History Vol. 19, No. 3 (1950), pp. 171-186

-An older article, but it addresses the struggle between Christianity and freedom and why Caribbean slaveholders feared the spread of Christianity among their slaves.



unless otherwise noted, all the articles are accessed through the library’s database.(JSTORE and MUSE)

Resall, Unedited, Book Review

Restall, Matthew. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Matthew Restall’s 2003 book, Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest, evaluates the truthfulness of the seven most common assumptions about the Spanish Conquest of the New World. As the title suggests, Restall’s purpose of the work is the disproving of the seven “myths” he assesses. The myths he tackles are the ones so ingrained in our cultural storytelling that they are often retold by scholars and the public without realizing they are potentially perpetuating false accounts.

Restall begins with the myth of the exceptional man. Using Columbus and Cortés as the primary examples, Restall proves that neither were particularly exceptional. In fact, Restall argues both were simply following protocol of previous explorers and established conquering techniques. The next chapter addresses the myth of a full-fledged army invading the New World. Instead of traditional soldiers crossing the Atlantic, Restall proposes that it was mostly those looking for wealth and status. The idea of a traditional army invading is a later development in history. The third chapter turns to the role of the native people and African slaves in the conquest, arguing that without the active assistant of both groups the conquest could not have succeeded. The fourth myth, and corresponding chapter, addresses the myth of completion. Despite accounts returning to the Spanish mainland describing conquered and subdued areas of the New World, Restall points out the inconsistencies, if not complete lack of Spanish oversight, in areas that were supposed to be under Spanish control by the specific date of 1521. The fifth myth concerns the role communication played in the interactions between the Spanish and the natives. Using Cortés’ lover/interpreter Malinche as an example, Restall points out that communication between the cultures was neither perfect or unintelligible, instead it was somewhere in between. The next chapter tackles the myth of a decimated native culture. Instead of a helpless ruined culture, Restall argues that the Native culture was actually resilient and changed to meet the demands of a changing environment. The final myth and chapter is what Restall calls the “ultimate myth” and describes it as a reoccurring “trope of superiority” (132). The myth is the idea of European superiority. Restall describes this myth as taking a wide range of forms including superior weaponry, superior knowledge, and more insidiously, superior genetics. Using numerous historical accounts as proof of the spread of such an idea, Restall proposes this myth is the most entrenched in Western history because it offers a justification, however mislead, of not only the Spanish Conquest, but of European colonization in general. He concludes his work with epilogue concerning the death of Cuauhtémoc and Cortés’ involvement with his passing. Restall uses up to four different primary sources to show how the myth and story changes through the filter of time and authorship. With the epilogue, Restall is essentially displaying his research for the whole of the book, and how he justifies disproving the earlier myths by evaluating the wide assortment of primary sources concerning the Conquest.

Restall’s background makes him particularly suited for such research. Currently, he is a professor at Penn State University and considers himself a Colonial Latin American historian with areas of specialization in colonial Yucatan, Mexico, Maya history, the Spanish Conquest, and Africans in Spanish America. According to his bibliography, Restall is able to understand both Spanish and the Yucatec Maya language. This skill allows him to evaluate incidents during the Conquest from different points of view, especially those points of view that disagree with traditional European sources, and create new theories about what occurred.

This revisionist assessment of the Conquest is the purpose of the book. Restall’s goal is to propose new interpretations of the sources and compare them to the original narratives of what happened during the Conquest. In this respect Restall is aligning himself postmodern historians concerned with language and narrative, such as Hayden White and UTA’s former Hans Kellner. When using the primary sources, Restall focuses on the language and author of the piece instead of taking the sources at face value. For example, when discussing the myth of an invading army, Restall evaluates the evolution of the word solider and concludes that the authors writing in the sixteenth century did not mean the modern idea of a solider when they wrote of Cortés’ companions. Instead, Restall argues the idea of a solider army invading the Americas in a result of modern translation. Revealing this kind of miscommunication between the historian and historical author is repeated throughout the book. Restell explains this same sort of linguistic mistake is likewise responsible for the myth of the natives thinking the Spanish are gods.

The agendas of the authors are also taken into account and explored by Restall. He makes a point to use multiple sources to explain many of the events that are traditionally considered the origins of the myths. These additional sources often give a second opinion of what happened and challenge the popular assumptions. A grateful and respectful Cortés is sometimes revealed to be not so gracious through native voices. The underlying purpose of the document is also taken into account by Restall. If a document was produced for more than just the purpose explicitly stated, a frequent occurrence in government and religious texts, Restall takes the secondary purpose of the text into account and a new version of events will emerge.

The new version of events is then clearly described by Restall and written in an easily accessible manner. This is one of strengths of the book. If the purpose is to introduce a new version of historical events, then a non-threatening comparative narrative is the best way to accomplish such a task. Restall does this with ease and makes a strong case for his argument. He also adds to the Transatlantic scholarship by introducing new voices and uncommon points of view to the historical conversation. For example, traditionally, in Transatlantic scholarship, Africans are most commonly slaves and the bulk of research is focused on topics pertaining to slavery. Restall introduces a new African to the discipline, one that is free in South America to make a fortune, or even a slave that is trusted to build an empire instead of viewed as non-human workhorse.

The weakness of the book is found, perhaps ironically, in stories and whispers about the creation of the book. Is this book the full story? Are all these Restall’s ideas, or does he have other, hidden scholars to thank?

Harms Book Review (Unedited)

Harms, Robert. The Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds of the Slave Trade. Oxford: Perseus Press, 2002.

Robert Harms, a professor at Yale University, has painstakingly recreated a remarkable account of an eighteenth-century slaving voyage with his latest book The Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds of the Slave Trade. The book utilizes firsthand accounts of First Lieutenant Robert Durand to follow the evolution of the expedition from conception to completion.
Chronicling a slave vessel’s journey across the Atlantic Ocean is a daunting enough task; however, Harms takes it a step further and delves into more than just the ship’s logs and Durand’s diary. In a bold attempt of interdisciplinary scholarship, he addresses issues such as social caste systems, ship navigation technology, agriculture machinery and most frequently, economics - culled mostly from primary French sources. The scope of the book could be evidenced in the amount of information packed into the book alone. In addition to twelve separate sections, the book contains 405 pages of narration, 58 illustrations, 47 chapters, 49 pages of notes and indexes, and a reconstruction of the balance sheet of The Diligent.
A simple summary of the contents of the book would do little justice to Harms’ colossal reconstruction. Each chapter begins with a narration relating in some way the story of the ship. Most often, although not always, the narration in the beginning is focusing on incidents recorded in Durand’s account of the Diligent’s adventures. From the narrative beginnings, Harms then evolves into a more analytical account of the circumstances surrounding the primary story line. For example, Chapter 33 begins with recreating the slaves’ evening exercises with the accompaniment of an accordion player. From this point there is a slight diversion into the traditional musical instruments in the Whydah / Dahomey region of Africa, followed by an explanation of the psychology motivating slavers to pay for such an otherwise seemingly frivolous expense. From that point the analysis moves to physical techniques of how “exercising” the slaves was accomplished, including a description of the restraints used to prevent revolts during exercise sessions, and the how the fear of white cannibalism helped in establishing an atmosphere of fear. Returning to Durand’s log, Harms then talks about how the ship was run a like a prison by comparing the exercise sessions and barter system that evolved on board the Diligent to such systems common in modern prison routines today. The chapter then returns again to Durand’s log with a discussion of navigation matters and the progress the ship was making, before concluding with comparing the ship’s captain to others of his time.
Such a synthesis of diverse topics is typical of the chapters Harms creates in his work. This broad range is both the book’s strength and weakness. Such an inclusion allows a reader to be easily convinced of Harms’ expertise. It also allows for an easier placement of events in the timeline of historic events. An illustration of such benefits is found in the aforementioned chapter with Harms’ adroit ability to interrupt the flow of narrative for a discussion of payment practices for accordion players on slaving ships. Having such statistics imbedded in the text helps a reader fully integrate the information.
Yet it cannot be dismissed that such interruptions, however deftly executed, disrupt the narrative. The story of the ship, and consequently the importance of the book, must be pieced together by the reader from between bits of analysis. Such a task is considered a weakness, especially when the amount of information threatens to overshadow the actual purpose of the book which is to use Durand’s journal to illustrate “the story of a great crime” (xiv). A book without a clear purpose is just a regurgitation of facts.
Harms could be excused in that the weakness of his book is simply a product of his times. Ever since the decline in popularity of the Annals School and other strict Structuralism writing styles, historical scholars and authors have been struggling with how to combine analysis with narrative. Historian Lawrence Stone addresses such inevitable problems in modern historical writing with his work Past & Present. Harms’ choice to include such an immense amount of information only compounds the analysis versus narrative struggle. Perhaps his short chapter lengths and consistent restarting of the story in the beginning of each chapter are attempts to rectify the problem.
In the end, how cumbersome Harms’ extra analysis is, is actually a subjective question. Each reader must determine the extent the interruptions in the narrative are considered a weakness. Readers not easily sidetracked may not be bothered by such a choppy flow, whereas others will not be able to get past such uneven construction.
Construction issues aside, Harms contributes to the transatlantic narrative by illustrating the bonds of the transatlantic community, most often using the economic interdependence of the transatlantic nations as the glue. His narratives would often include assertions how the economic vitality and products of one area influenced the ship’s progress. While anchored off the coast of Africa, Harms discusses the international trading occurring between the ships. The Diligent traded an English ship meat for Brazilian tobacco, a Portuguese ship for more Brazilian tobacco, and French brandy for African gold (260). Interesting enough, Harms himself does not see connections and inadvertently argues against an interconnected Atlantic state. In the introduction he states, “The French owners of the Diligent, the king of Dahomey, the cultivators of Sãn Tomé, and the planters of Martinique had very little in common except a belief they could profit from participating in the slave trade” (xx). In this way, Harms is arguing against Bernard Bailyn’s assertion that the economic interdependence is proof of an independent Atlantic community.
Regardless of his purpose and quibbles with his execution, Harms has produced a noteworthy book that gives a voice to a diary that would have otherwise been lost in the archives of history. Harms’ work is something based on enough original research to be approved by scholars, yet the writing remains accessible for lay readers. Successfully balancing this line is perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of the book.

Harms Book Review

Wright, Donald R. “Review of The Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds of the Slave Trade.” African Studies Review, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Apr 2003): 211-212
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1514999

Musambachime, Mwelwa C. “Review of The Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds of the Slave Trade.” The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol. 35, No. 2/3 (2002):552-554
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3097667

Eltis, David. “Review of The Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds of the Slave Trade.” The William and Mary Quarterly Vol. 61, No. 1 (Jan 2004): 161- 167
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/wm/61.1/br_7.html


Mintz, Sidney. “Review of The Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds of the Slave Trade.” American Anthropologist Vol. 107, No. 1 (Mar 2005): 150–151
http://www.anthrosource.net/doi/abs/10.1525/aa.2005.107.1.150

Gaspar, David Barry. “Review of The Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds of the Slave Trade.” American Historical Review Vol. 109, No. 1 (Feb 2004): 144-145

Gold, Sarah F. “Review of The Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds of the Slave Trade.” Publishers Weekly Vol. 248, No. 51, (Dec. 17, 2001):77