ABSTRACT

This article investigates the legal case to emancipate 423 enslaved Africans from the Maria da Gloria, a slaver which was adjudicated in Rio de Janeiro and Sierra Leone in 1833-1834. The arbitration of the Maria da Gloria on both sides of the Atlantic and its triple middle passages constitute one of the most remarkable episodes of the British campaign to end human trafficking in the nineteenth century. It resulted in the restoration of the vessel with its human cargo in 1834 and the death of at least 114 captives under the gaze of authorities who wielded the power of the law – the anti-slavery treaties and domestic law – to emancipate its enslaved men, women, and children from the traffic. Calling for critical inquiry into the mortuary archives of restored vessels, the article argues that registers of liberated Africans, containment policies, and disposal strategies to govern the re-captives after emancipation constitute artifacts of black lives as bare life. It theorises the necropolitics of statelessness and racialised citizenship through a case specific discussion of one means of liberation for enslaved Africans in the Atlantic World.

摘要

本文调查了从 1833 年至 1834 年在里约热内卢和塞拉利昂审判的奴隶贩玛丽亚·达·格洛里亚( Maria da Gloria)手中解放 423 名被奴役的非洲人的法律案件。Maria da Gloria的仲裁大西洋两岸及其三重中间通道构成了 19 世纪英国结束人口贩运运动中最引人注目的事件之一。这导致 1834 年这艘载有人类货物的船只被修复，至少有 114 名俘虏在行使法律权力——反奴隶制条约和国内法——解放其奴隶的当局的注视下死亡，妇女和儿童远离交通。文章呼吁对修复船只的太平间档案进行批判性调查，文章认为，解放后的非洲人登记册、收容政策和管理解放后重新俘虏的处置策略构成了黑人生活作为裸体生活的产物。