Review of J. Harris (2020) The Last Slave Ships: New York and the End of the Middle Passage

Between 1853 and 1867, long after the United States government had outlawed the transatlantic slave trade, approximately 474 ships sailed along the United States–Africa–Cuba triangular route to transport African captives across the Atlantic. Around 200,000 men, women, and children were secretly taken onboard these ships, with tens of thousands dying along the way. In The Last Slave Ships: New York and the End of the Middle Passage (2020), John Harris retells the troubling history of US involvement in this illegal slave trade.