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Mary E. Hicks, "Captive Cosmopolitans: Black Mariners and the World of South Atlantic Slavery" (Omohundro Institute and UNC Press, 2025)

Sep 26, 2025
Mary E. Hicks, an Associate Professor of History at the University of Chicago, dives into her groundbreaking work on Black mariners in the South Atlantic. She reveals how these sailors used their cultural and navigational skills to navigate a world of enslavement and trade. Hicks discusses the paradox of seeking freedom through participation in the slave economy, as well as the impact of Portuguese law on their status. The conversation reveals the rich tapestry of maritime knowledge and the profound influence of Black seamen on both sides of the Atlantic.
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INSIGHT

Archive Moment That Changed The Project

  • Mary Hicks found a 1797 petition by four enslaved sailors that reframed legal claims to freedom based on Portuguese soil laws.
  • That discovery redirected her research toward Black mariners and their cosmopolitan strategies in the South Atlantic.
INSIGHT

Cosmopolitanism As Coerced Flexibility

  • Hicks defines captive cosmopolitanism as cultural flexibility forged under coercion and mobility.
  • That hybridity both empowered mariners and made them valuable to slaving merchants.
INSIGHT

Cosmopolitanism Meets Capital

  • Cosmopolitanism here blends linguistic, medicinal, and navigational fluency with the violence of enslavement.
  • Hicks shows this cultural dexterity was simultaneously a survival strategy and a source of extracted profit.
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