Jared Staller teaches world history at St. Francis Episcopal School of Houston, Texas. He earned his PhD from the University of Virginia and taught African and world history at Rice University. His research has appeared in History in Africa, Research in African Literatures, and elsewhere.
Listed in: Atlantic Studies · African Studies · Slavery and Slave Trade · African History
Converging on Cannibals
Terrors of Slaving in Atlantic Africa, 1509–1670
By Jared Staller
In Converging on Cannibals, Jared Staller demonstrates that one of the most terrifying discourses used during the era of transatlantic slaving—cannibalism—was coproduced by Europeans and Africans. When these people from vastly different cultures first came into contact, they shared a fear of potential cannibals. Some Africans and European slavers allowed these rumors of themselves as man-eaters to stand unchallenged.
