German Slavery 

“German Slavery” is the title of the Consolidator Grant project funded by the European Research Council from 2015 to 2022, which investigated the extent and impact of human trafficking into the Old Empire. This section also collates the publications of current and former members of the Bremen Early Modern History Division that deal with German involvement in slavery and the slave trade in a broader sense.

Rebekka v. Mallinckrodt

• “Alphonse Tarangai or The Great Fury: Race Making from Below and Forms of Resistance by People of Color in Early Nineteenth Century Germany,” Globalgeschichte/ Global History 2, no. 2 (2024), 163–182.
• “Zwischen Sklaverei und Exotismus: People of Colour am Hof Augusts des Starken (r. 1694–1733) und Christiane Eberhardines (r. 1694–1717),” in Nadine Amsler/ Nadir Weber (eds.), Im Schatten der Macht: Subalterne Körper am Fürstenhof, Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung, Beihefte (2024), 31–65.
• The European Experience in Slavery, 1650–1850, Berlin: de Gruyter 2024, 206 pages, 14 ill.
• “The European Experience in Slavery 1650–1850: Parallels and Entanglements,” in , 1–21.
• “Iconography and the Law: Slaves at the Dresden Court,” in , 151–181.
• Special Issue Journal of Global Slavery 8, 2–3 (2023): “From Practices to Structurations: German Involvement in Slavery and the Slave Trade” (co-edited with Magnus Ressel), 238 pages, 6 ill.
• “Return of a Ghost: Slavery and the Law in Early Modern Saxony (Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries),” in , 145–177.
• “Die lichtabgewandte Seite der Freiheit: Sklaverei im frühneuzeitlichen Sachsen,” in Nicole J. Saam/ Heiner Bielefeld (eds.), Die Idee der Freiheit und ihre Semantiken. Zum Spannungsverhältnis von Freiheit und Sicherheit, Bielefeld: transcript 2023, 239–250.
• Beyond Exceptionalism: Traces of Slavery and the Slave Trade in Early Modern Germany 1650–1850, Berlin: de Gruyter 2021 (co-edited with Josef Köstlbauer and Sarah Lentz), 330 pages, 21 ill.
• “[Introduction] Beyond Exceptionalism: Traces of Slavery and the Slave Trade in Early Modern Germany 1650–1850,” (co-authored with Josef Köstlbauer and Sarah Lentz), in , 1–25.
• “Slavery and the Law in Eighteenth-Century Germany,” in , 137–162.
• “Einleitung zur Sektion: Mehr als Zucker und ‚Hofmohren‘ – Aktuelle Forschungen zu den ‚German Hinterlands‘,” in Peter Burschel/ Sünne Juterczenka (eds.), Das Meer. Maritime Welten in der Frühen Neuzeit, Cologne: Böhlau 2021, 7–12.
• “Sklaverei und Recht im Alten Reich,” in , 29–42.
• “People of African Descent on Early Modern Europe” (co-authored with Annika Bärwald and Josef Köstlbauer), in Oxford Bibliographies Online. Atlantic History, ed. Trevor Burnard, DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780199730414-0326, last modified 15 January 2020.
• “Verschleppte Kinder im Heiligen Römischen Reich Deutscher Nation und die Grenzen transkultureller Mehrfachzugehörigkeit,” in Dagmar Freist/ Sabine Kyora/ Melanie Unseld (eds.), Transkulturelle Mehrfachzugehörigkeiten – Räume, Materialitäten, Erinnerungen, Bielefeld: transcript 2019, 15–37.
• “Des rencontres asymétriques – La traite des enfants dans le Saint-Empire romain germanique,” in Karine Rance et al. (eds.), La scène de la rencontre. Altérités en dialogue de l’Antiquité à nos jours, Clermont-Ferrand: Presses universitaires Blaise-Pascal 2019, 203–223.
• “Verhandelte (Un)Freiheit – Sklaverei, Leibeigenschaft und innereuropäischer Wissenstransfer am Ausgang des 18. Jahrhunderts,” in Geschichte und Gesellschaft 43 (2017), 347–380.
• “There are no Slaves in Prussia?,” in Felix Brahm/ Eve Rosenhaft (eds.), Slavery Hinterland. Transatlantic Slavery and Continental Europe, 1680–1850, Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer 2016, 109–131.

Sarah Lentz

• “Deconstructing a National Hero. The Changing Representation of the Prussian Sailor and Slave Trader Joachim Nettelbeck, 1807 to Present,” in History & Memory 36, no. 2 (2024) 37–72 (co-authored with Urs Lindner).
• “'Domestiken‘, Versklavte und Bedienstete. Schwarze Menschen in Bremen um 1800,” in Norman Aselmeyer/ Virginie Kamche (eds.), „Stadt der Kolonien.“ Wie Bremen den Kolonialismus prägte, Freiburg im Breisgau 2024, 123–127 (co-authored with Jasper H. Hagedorn).
• “ Augen zu und weiter so,” in Jasmin Lörcher/ Frank Patalong (eds.), Die Sklaverei und die Deutschen. Eine Geschichte von Ausbeutung, Profit und Verdrängung, München: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt 2024, 109–118.
• “Practicing Medicine on Shaky Grounds. German-Speaking Ship’s Doctors Aboard Enslavement Trade Vessels,” in Journal of Global Slavery 8 (2023), 207–236.
• “German Slavery and Its Legacies. On History, Activism and a Black German Past,” in Stephan Cornermann et al. (eds.), Cultural Heritage and Slavery: Perspectives from Europe, Boston 2023, 303–332 (co-authored with Annika Bärwald).
• “’Oh, wonderful sugar beet! You are the death of the bloody sugar cane.’ The German Debate on the Morality of the Consumption of Sugar Produced by Slave Labour Around 1800,” in Felix Brahm/ Eve Rosenhaft (eds.), Global Commerce and Economic Conscience in Europe, 1700–1900, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2022, 171–189.
• Beyond Exceptionalism: Traces of Slavery and the Slave Trade in Early Modern Germany 1650–1850, Berlin: de Gruyter 2021 (co-edited with Rebekka von Mallinckrodt and Josef Köstlbauer), 330 pages, 21 ill.
• “[Introduction] Beyond Exceptionalism: Traces of Slavery and the Slave Trade in Early Modern Germany 1650–1850,” (co-authored with Rebekka von Mallinckrodt and Josef Köstlbauer), in , 1–25.
• “’ No German Ship is Involved in the Slave Trade!’ The Public Controversy about German Participation in the Slave Trade during the 1840s,” in , 286–311.
• “Deutsche Profiteure des atlantischen Sklavereisystems und der deutschsprachige Sklavereidiskurs der Spätaufklärung,” in Sünne Juterczenka/ Peter Burschel (eds.), Das Meer. Maritime Welten in der Frühen Neuzeit, Cologne: Böhlau 2021, 581–597.
• “Wer helfen kann, der helfe!“ Deutsche SklavereigegnerInnen und die atlantische Abolitionsbewegung, 1780–1860, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2020.
• “Abolitionists in the German Hinterland? Therese Huber and the Spread of Antislavery Sentiment in the German Territories around 1800,” in Felix Brahm/ Eve Rosenhaft (eds.), Slavery Hinterland. Transatlantic Slavery and Continental Europe, 1680–1850, London: Boydell & Brewer 2016, 187–211.

Annika Bärwald

• “European Port Cities and the Black Atlantic: On the Potential of Transnational Meso Histories,” in Yearbook of Transnational History 7 (2024), 65–94.
• “Koloniale Spuren in Ahrensburg: Joseph | Heinrich Carl Ambach und weitere Schwarze Menschen im Umkreis der Familie Schimmelmann,” in Lern- und Gedenkort im Alten Speicher, Oktober 2024, https://gedenkort-speicher.de/2024/10/17/koloniale-spuren-in-ahrensburg/.
• “Fugitives in a Free City: Hamburg and Its Handling of Slavery in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries,” in Age of Revolutions, Juni 2023, https://ageofrevolutions.com/2023/06/15/fugitives-in-a-free-city-hamburg-and-its-handling-of-slavery-in-the-eighteenth-and-nineteenth-centuries/
• “German Slavery and Its Legacies. On History, Activism and a Black German Past,” in Stephan Conermann et al. (eds.), Cultural Heritage and Slavery: Perspectives from Europe, Berlin: de Gruyter 2023, 303–332 (co-authored with Sarah Lentz).
• “Black Hamburg: People of Asian and African Descent Navigating a Late Eighteenth- and Early Nineteenth-Century Job Market,” in Rebekka von Mallinckrodt/ Josef Köstlbauer/ Sarah Lentz (eds.), Beyond Exceptionalism: Traces of Slavery and the Slave Trade in Early Modern Germany, 1650–1850, Berlin: de Gruyter 2021, 189–214.
• “Atlantic Slavery and Its Repercussions in German-Speaking Territories, c. 1650–1850,” WORCK Cost Action Bibliographies, August 2021, https://ubib-sfb1288-appsrv03.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/?q=atlantic-slavery-and-its-repercussions-german-speaking-territories-c-1650%E2%80%931850
• “People of African Descent in Early Modern Europe,” Oxford Bibliographies Online, January 2020 (co-authored with Rebekka von Mallinckrodt and Josef Köstlbauer).

Jasper Hagedorn (former project member „German Slavery“)

• “‘Domestiken‘, Versklavte und Bedienstete. Schwarze Menschen in Bremen um 1800,” in Norman Aselmeyer/ Virginie Kamche (eds.), „Stadt der Kolonien.“ Wie Bremen den Kolonialismus prägte, Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder 2024, 123–127 (co-authored with Sarah Lentz).
• Bremen und die atlantische Sklaverei. Waren, Wissen und Personen, 1780–1860, Baden-Baden: Nomos 2023 (PhD University of Bremen 2022).

Julia Holzmann (former project member „German Slavery“)

• Geschichte der Sklaverei in der niederländischen Republik. Recht, Rassismus und die Handlungsmacht Schwarzer Menschen und People of Color, 1680–1863, Bielefeld: transcript 2022 (PhD University of Bremen 2020).

Josef Köstlbauer (former project member „German Slavery“)

• “Subjugation by Labelling. Analysing the Semantics of Subservience in a Fugitive Slave Case from Eighteenth-Century Germany,” in Work Semantics, Semantiken der Arbeit, ed. by Claude Chevaleyre and Juliane Schiel, Österreichische Zeitschrift für Geschichtsforschung 34, no. 2 (2023), 149–174.
• Beyond Exceptionalism: Traces of Slavery and the Slave Trade in Early Modern Germany, 1650–1850, Berlin de Gruyter 2021 (co-edited with Rebekka von Mallinckrodt and Sarah Lentz).
• “[Introduction] Beyond Exceptionalism: Traces of Slavery and the Slave Trade in Early Modern Germany, 1650–1850” (co-authored with Rebekka von Mallinckrodt and Sarah Lentz), in , 1–25.
• “’I have no shortage of Moors’: Mission, Representation, and the Elusive Semantics of Slavery in Eighteenth-Century Moravian Sources,” in , 108–136.
• “Claiming a Runaway Slave in the Holy Roman Empire: The Case of Samuel Johannes (1754),” Worlds of Related Coercions in Work (WORCK), 2021, https://dkan.worck.digital-history.uni-bielefeld.de/?q=story/claiming-runaway-slave-holy-roman-empire-case-samuel-johannes-1754.
• “People of African Descent in Early Modern Europe,” in Oxford Bibliographies in Atlantic History, ed. by Trevor Burnard, New York: Oxford University Press 2020 (co-authored with Rebekka von Mallinckrodt and Annika Bärwald)

“Ambiguous Passages: Non-Europeans brought to Europe by the Moravian Brethren during the 18th Century,” in Klaus Weber/ Jutta Wimmler (eds.), Globalized Peripheries: Central and Eastern Europe’s Atlantic Histories, c. 1680–1860, Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer 2019, 214–236.

This pro­ject has re­ceived fund­ing from the European Re­search Coun­cil (ERC) un­der the European Uni­on’s Ho­ri­zon 2020 re­search and in­nov­a­tion pro­gramme (grant agree­ment No 641110).