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Book Review: 'If We Must Die' by Eric Robert Taylor

Module: HST6339 The Atlantic Slave Trade in Africa, Europe and the Americas

By: Melissa Berry


Shipboard slave resistance is growing in significance among scholars. Eric Robert Taylor's book If We Must Die brings the matter to centre stage, providing an in depth study of eighteenth century shipboard insurrections. Taylor's research of nearly five hundred uprisings sheds light to an overlooked topic in the historiography of the slave trade. Holding a doctorate in history from the University of California he has considerable weight in the field. His degree both graduate and post-graduate are focused around African American studies, these were then incorporated into his career in freelance television. For example, Taylor has worked on a three-part documentary called Africans Americans in Television. This review will question Taylor's originality, as he proclaims shipboard insurrections have been overlooked by scholars. It will argue that despite adding depth to the historiography, he fails to do this in isolation due to other historians addressing the revolts.

Taylor's contribution to the field removes the idea that Africans were passive to slavery. He shows that slaves were morally obligated to rise up against their oppressors, hence ‘if they must die, they will have died nobly’.[1] Many historians fail to observe slavery uprisings aboard ships crossing the middle passage, as it was thought more of a phenomenon rather than a trend, notwithstanding the relatively low success rate that the slaves obtained. Ultimately little is known of successful slave insurrections. This was to spare the humiliation and embarrassment of the captain. The successful revolts would have been an account from a white perspective and published for the purpose of a cautionary warning. The reason the vast majority of uprisings were unsuccessful is because the odds were stacked so heavily against the Africans. They experienced natal alienation, language barriers and sheer lack of timing to stage a revolt. Also, trepidation consumed slaves of the brutal punishments and mutilation of revolt leaders if their insurrection was to fail.[2] Despite this, Taylor provides overlooked evidence of one hundred and twenty cases where slaves were completely successful in reclaiming their freedom.[3]

Overall, Taylor's argument is less original than he proclaims. Whilst it is true that many historians have disregarded slave resistance during the middle passage. For example, Taylor illuminates how errors are repeated by historians regarding shipboard insurrection. As one historian in 1996 incorrectly claimed that ‘no shipboard revolt was successful until the nineteenth century’.[4] Notwithstanding, historians such as Herbert Apheker, Michael Craton and Eugene Genovese who all contributed to the school of thought of slave uprisings. Yet all three failed to mention slave shipboard revolts. However, Taylor does not solely shed light to slavery shipboard insurrections. For instance, in Daniel Mannix and Malcolm Cowley’s book Black Cargoes, a whole chapter is devoted to the middle passage. Within this chapter Mannix and Cowley point out that many precautions were made to tame slaves, yet mutinies were frequent on the Coast.[5] To add to this, Mannix and Cowleys’ argument is simultaneous alongside Taylor's in reference to the failed insurrections. Both state that failed rebellions on shipboards accounted for multiple deaths among slaves and sailors.[6] Insurrections had direct impact to the slave trade. For example, they effected the profitability of slaves and the adaptations of methods to control slaves upon the voyage. Therefore, Taylor's book is not a new school of thought but rather a deeper contribution to the insight of slave shipboard insurrections.

On the whole, Taylor’s argument about the significance of shipboard insurrections is persuasive. If We Must Die is descriptively captivating and unveils a greater understanding of slaves’ reaction to forced enslavement and the treatment of slaves upon the ships. Slave resistance is a growing factor within historical popular culture. For example, the publications of the film Amistad (1997) and documentary Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property (2003). Amistad is arguably the most famous successful shipboard insurrection. Moreover, Taylor attempts to address broader themes within his book, such as the augmenting prices of the slaves, the insufficiency of this point weakens his argument. For example, Taylor argues that shipboard insurrections played a role in keeping the prices for slaves high. Entering into the nineteenth century, Taylor argues that these prices became unaffordable thus there was a decline in the demand for slaves.[7] Taylor's argument comes across as forced, as though he is trying to wedge a piece of a puzzle that doesn’t fit. A more convincing argument than Taylor's would be that the demand for slaves’ declined because of the growing support for the abolitionist movement. Abolitionists’ in England encouraged parliament to pass a law in 1808 that prohibited the importation of slaves into American territory. This was then followed by all European countries. One can also suggest that because of these laws, illegal smuggling of slaves became a trend. Therefore, with the greater risk being taken by sailors the value of slaves would have inevitably increased.

To conclude, Taylor's book If We Must Die reinserts the importance of the shipboard insurrections into the history of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Taylor persuasively illustrates how uprisings had a domino effect in regards to the records, treatment and profitability of slaves on board the ships. However, Taylor's weakness is that he over exaggerates the impact of the shipboard insurrections, in regards to a wider context. They are important to scholars to help formulate an understanding of slaves and their experiences. Yet Taylor frequently makes hyperbolic claims that weakens his argument, as previously mentioned with Taylor's reason for decline in demand for slaves. Also it is worth noting, Taylor ends the book by proclaiming that the ship voyages were the first stage of Africans struggle.[8] This is not an accurate statement. African hardships began the moment they were forced into enslavement, by being torn away from their homes and families. Overall, Taylor does fill a void in the historiography of slave shipboard insurrections, illuminating their significance and how some uprisings resulted in slaves obtaining their freedom.


 

Footnotes

[1] Eric Robert Taylor, If We Must Die (Louisiana State University Press, 2009), 164.

[2] Ibid., 112-118.

[3] Ibid., 137.

[4] Taylor, If We Must Die, 6.

[5] Daniel P. Mannix and Malcom Cowley, “Middle Passage” American Heritage, Volume 13 Issue 2 (February 1962): https://www.americanheritage.com/middle-passage

[6] Ibid.

[7] Taylor, If We Must Die, 167.

[8] Taylor, If We Must Die, 177.

 

Bibliography:

Mannix, Daniel P. and Malcom Cowley. “Middle Passage” American Heritage, Volume 13 Issue 2 (February 1962).

Taylor, Eric Robert. If We Must Die. Louisiana State University Press, 2009.

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