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Stephanie Smallwood’s work “African Guardians, European Slave ships and the Changing Dynamics of Power in the early Modern Atlantic” exists to educate people on the dynamics of power, aboard Slave carrying vessels that once sailed the Atlantic. It is commonly taught in American schools that the hierarchy of power aboard slave ships crossing the Atlantic was rigid and only existed as follows, Crew > Slaves. Smallwood challenges that assumption with the introduction of a third group in that hierarchy that awkwardly takes its place between the European crew members and the slaves aboard the ship.
This group was the African born “Guardians “that watched over the rest of the slaves on board the vessel, looking for signs of insurrection. Guardians were often members of a different ethnicity so that familial ties did not compromise their loyalty to the crew. Guardians loyalty to the crew was acquired in various ways including, the promise of freedom, the feeling of superiority acquired from holding the position and better food/boarding available to them. While freedom was sometimes promised to Guardians that promise was rarely kept and they often met the same fate as those they guarded.
Since their fate was the same as those they guarded, their position was largely an empty one but, it’s still provides us with a more diverse hierarchy than the one we are often taught. The fact that some slaves were given elevated status despite still being viewed as “property” shows just how illogical the race based institution of slave was.