Research Catalog

Patroons & Periaguas : enslaved watermen and watercraft of the lowcountry

Title
Patroons & Periaguas : enslaved watermen and watercraft of the lowcountry / Lynn B. Harris.
Author
Harris, Lynn B.
Publication
Columbia, South Carolina : University of South Carolina Press, [2014]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Filter by

1 Item

StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library Sc E 14-1563Schomburg Center - Research & Reference

Details

Description
ix, 146 pages; 24 cm
Summary
"Patroons and Periaguas explores the intricately interwoven and colorful creole maritime legacy of Native Americans, Africans, enslaved and free African Americans, and Europeans who settled along the rivers and coastline near the bourgeoning colonial port city of Charleston, South Carolina. Colonial South Carolina, from a European perspective, was a water-filled world where boatmen of diverse ethnicities adopted and adapted maritime skills learned from local experiences or imported from Africa and the Old World to create a New World society and culture. Lynn B. Harris describes how they crewed together in galleys as an ad hoc colonial navy guarding settlements on the Edisto, Kiawah, and Savannah Rivers, rowed and raced plantation log boats called periaguas, fished for profits, and worked side by side as laborers in commercial shipyards building sailing ships for the Atlantic coastal trade, the Caribbean islands, and Europe. Watercraft were of paramount importance for commercial transportation and travel, and the skilled people who built and operated them were a distinctive class in South Carolina. Enslaved patroons (boat captains) and their crews provided an invaluable service to planters, who had to bring their staple products--rice, indigo, deerskins, and cotton--to market, but they were also purveyors of information for networks of rebellious communications and illicit trade. Harris employs historical records, visual images, and a wealth of archaeological evidence embedded in marshes, underwater on riverbeds, or exhibited in local museums to illuminate clues and stories surrounding these interactions and activities. A pioneering underwater archaeologist, she brings sources and personal experience to bear as she weaves vignettes of the ongoing process of different peoples adapting to each other and their new world that is central to our understanding of the South Carolina maritime landscape. "--
Alternative Title
Patroons and Periaguas
Subjects
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (pages 127-140) and index.
Call Number
Sc E 14-1563
ISBN
  • 9781611173857 (hardback)
  • 161117385X (hardback)
  • 9781611173864 (ebook) (canceled/invalid)
  • 1611173868 (ebook) (canceled/invalid)
LCCN
  • 2014004298
  • 40024181950
OCLC
881279963
Author
Harris, Lynn B., author.
Title
Patroons & Periaguas : enslaved watermen and watercraft of the lowcountry / Lynn B. Harris.
Publisher
Columbia, South Carolina : University of South Carolina Press, [2014]
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 127-140) and index.
Other Standard Identifier
40024181950
Research Call Number
Sc E 14-1563
View in Legacy Catalog