The Iconography of Death in the Logbooks of the Eighteenth-Century Dutch Atlantic Slave Trade

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2024

Abstract

When deaths among the enslaved and crew occurred during the eighteenth-century voyages of the vessels of the Middelburg Commercial Company, many of the officers who kept logbooks aboard drew skulls and crossbones, crosses, hourglasses, and other icons to mark those deaths. While some scholars have previously noted those icons preserved in the margins of 109 logbooks in the Zeeuws Archive in Middelburg, the Netherlands, this first comprehensive description and analysis of that iconography of death contributes a novel dimension to our understanding of the Atlantic slave trade. Many of the icons relate to memento mori symbolism that emerged during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Dutch vanitas paintings and quotidian objects to emphasize the evanescence of mundane existence lived without spirituality, helping to reconcile the conspicuous consumption of material goods extracted from a global colonial empire with a Calvinist piety that abjured earthly possessions. The iconographical analysis reveals seventeen types of icons, ranging from basic marks such as an X to combinations of skulls, crossbones, hourglasses, and wings. Moreover, it reveals which icon types appear most commonly, how they changed over time, how they varied among logbook authors, and how they differed for deaths among the enslaved and crew.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Slavery and Abolition

Number

646

First Page

212

Last Page

241

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