Rediker looks not at that bigger picture but at the slave ship itself, as a microeconomy where the captain was chief executive, jailer, accountant, paymaster and disciplinarian, exercising these roles by maintaining, from his spacious captain’s cabin in a very unspacious ship, the mystique of what later military leaders would call command isolation.

The fishing vessel and crew members returned to Tailu township in the early morning of 12th April.…two metal-cased trawlers from Tailu township, Lianjiang County…

She has never considered herself either a claustrophobe or an agoraphobe but, well, this was different. This was both fears together – the fear of wide-open spaces jammed shoulder to shoulder with angry people.

The Gisarme called also gisaring, and, by Fleta, sisarmes is likewise an ancient weapon of the staff kind, but of what for seems doubtful.