Culture
Muskingum University to Host Noted Author, Historian
By: Rod Lang
Posted on:
The Muskingum University Faculty Special Events Committee will host a lecture, The Amistad Rebellion: A New Interpretation, by Dr. Marcus Rediker on Thursday, Sept. 19, at 7 p.m. in room 343 of Boyd Science Center.
Dr. Rediker, who is distinguished professor of Atlantic history at the University of Pittsburgh, will lecture on his most-recent book, The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom, which reframes one of the most important slavery events in American history.
On June 28, 1839, the Spanish slave schooner Amistad set sail from Havana on a routine delivery of human cargo. The captive Africans on board rose up, killed the captain, and seized control of the ship.
Following their capture, their legal battle for freedom eventually made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where their cause was argued by former President John Quincy Adams. In a landmark ruling, the slavers were freed and eventually returned to Africa.
The rebellion became one of the milestones in the history of American slavery, and was celebrated as a triumph of the legal system in reflecting the unique perspective of the judges, politicians and abolitionists involved in the case.
A 1976 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, Dr. Rediker earned both his master’s degree and his doctoral degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He has written, co-written or edited seven books since 1987, including Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, Who Built America? Volume
One; The Many-Headed Hydra, Villains of All Nations, The Slave Ship: A Human History, Many Middle Passages and the book on which he will lecture, The Amistad Rebellion, which was published in 2012.
The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, phone 740-826-8182.