Marcus Rediker

Marcus Buford Rediker (born October 14, 1951) is an American historian, writer, professor, and social activist. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1976 and attended the University of Pennsylvania for graduate study, earning a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in history. He taught at Georgetown University from 1982 to 1994 and is currently a Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History of the Department of History at the University of Pittsburgh.^[3]

Rediker is best known for his books on piracy and the Middle Passage that follow a people's history narrative. On occasion, Rediker has collaborated with contemporaries such as Peter Linebaugh and Paul Buhle. Rediker has also worked on the production of a one-man show based on QuakerabolitionistBenjamin Lay with playwright Naomi Wallace as well as a documentary on La Amistad with filmmaker Tony Buba.

Políticamente, Rediker se ha descrito a sí mismo como de extrema izquierda , pero no se afilia a ningún partido político . ^{[ 4 ]} Rediker es un firme opositor de la pena capital y apoya las reparaciones por la esclavitud . Ha ganado dos veces el Premio Merle Curti y el Premio Literario George Washington en 2008. Rediker recibió becas de la Fundación Nacional para las Humanidades , el Consejo Estadounidense de Sociedades Científicas y la Fundación John Simon Guggenheim Memorial , y fue reconocido por la Organización de Historiadores Estadounidenses como conferenciante distinguido de 2002 a 2008.

Rediker nació en Owensboro, Kentucky , el 14 de octubre de 1951, hijo de Buford y Faye Rediker. ^{[ 5 ] [ 6 ]} Es el primero de dos hijos, antes que su hermano Shayne. ^{[ 7 ]} La familia de Rediker provenía de un entorno de clase trabajadora y posteriormente se mudaron a Nashville, Tennessee y Richmond, Virginia . ^{[ 8 ] [ 9 ]} Rediker ha reconocido a su abuelo, un minero de carbón , como una de sus primeras influencias. ^{[ 10 ]} En una entrevista de 2018, Rediker dijo que "Me llevó muchos años, pero finalmente me di cuenta de que el tipo de historias que me gusta contar, y los libros que he escrito, tienen su tradición narrativa de los Apalaches detrás". ^{[ 10 ]}

A first-generation college student, Rediker began attending Vanderbilt University in 1969 before dropping out in 1971.^[4] Commenting on his time at Vanderbilt, Rediker recalled that he felt out of place due to the university's connections with the Southern elite.^[11] Initially attending on a basketball scholarship, Rediker credited campus protests against the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, and the black power movement with influencing both his interest in history and his political beliefs.^{[11][8][4][9]} In Richmond, Rediker worked in a DuPont textile factory for three years making cellophane.^[8] The factory faced extreme racial tension, with Rediker describing supporters of Malcolm X and a Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan working alongside him.^[12] Rediker's experiences with his co-workers fueled his passion for social history.^[1]

Rediker's job motivated him to read books and attend two night school courses on the American and French Revolution.^[8][11] After being laid off from the factory, Rediker enrolled at Virginia Commonwealth University.^[11] In 1976, Rediker graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in history. Rediker later attended the University of Pennsylvania for his graduate studies, working under Richard Slator Dunn.^[1] Originally intending to study Caribbean history, Rediker developed a deep fascination in Atlantic history while writing a research paper on sailors and pirates.^[13] Rediker published his dissertation, Society and Culture Among Anglo-American Deep Sea Sailors, 1700-1750, in 1982.^[2] At the University of Pennsylvania, Rediker earned a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in history.^[3][11]

Rediker began teaching at Georgetown University in 1982 before leaving to work at the University of Pittsburgh in 1994, where he has primarily taught ever since.^[11] Rediker was the Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair of Democratic Ideals at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa during the 2019-2020 semester.^[14][15]

Throughout his career, Rediker has written several books on Atlantic social, labor, and maritime history.^[3] For certain books, he collaborated with contemporaries such as Peter Linebaugh and Paul Buhle. In 2023, Rediker and Buhle co-wrote two graphic novels illustrated by David Lester. Rediker has written opinion pieces for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, The Nation, and The New York Times.^{[16][17][18][19][20]}

After serving five years as guest curator of the Tate Britain art museum in the J.M.W. Turner Gallery, Rediker resigned in June 2023 after his request to display a punishment box in front of Turner's 1835 painting, A Disaster at Sea, was denied by the museum.^[21][22] The painting, which was never finished, is theorized to have been based on the 1833 loss of Amphitrite, a British merchant and convict ship.^[23] On her final voyage, Amphitritecarried 108 female convicts and 12 children, all of whom perished.^[24] According to Rediker, the box was meant as a tribute to the ship's victims.^[22] Rediker alleged that the museum censored his proposal, though the museum claimed it was denied due to uncertainty surrounding the depicted ship's identity and the box's "domineering presence".^[25]

En mayo de 2013, Rediker y el cineasta Tony Buba viajaron a las aldeas de origen de los esclavos que se rebelaron en el barco español La Amistad en julio de 1839. ^{[ 10 ] [ 27 ] [ 28 ]} Durante su viaje al sur de Sierra Leona , Rediker y Buba realizaron entrevistas con ancianos de las aldeas y buscaron las ruinas de la fábrica de esclavos de Lomboko . Un documental que narra el viaje, Ghosts of Amistad: In the Footsteps of Rebels, se estrenó en noviembre de 2014 en el Three Rivers Film Festival en Pittsburgh. ^{[ 29 ]} La película se ha proyectado en varios festivales de cine y universidades de todo el mundo y se ha emitido en PBS desde su estreno. ^{[ 30 ]}

En 2017, Rediker y la dramaturga Naomi Wallace comenzaron la producción de una obra de teatro basada en Benjamin Lay , un abolicionista cuáquero . ^{[ 26 ]} La obra se originó a partir de una idea que Rediker y Wallace tuvieron para una conferencia conjunta en Berlín , donde un actor vestido como Lay interrumpiría la presentación y haría un monólogo . ^{[ 26 ]} Después de que los organizadores de la conferencia rechazaran su propuesta, Rediker y Wallace se retiraron en protesta y comenzaron a escribir la obra. ^{[ 26 ]} El regreso de Benjamin Lay se estrenó en el Finborough Theatre en junio de 2023. ^{[ 26 ]} Un espectáculo unipersonal , la representación presenta a Lay —interpretado por Mark Povinelli— suplicando por su regreso a la comunidad cuáquera. ^{[ 31 ]} La obra recibió críticas positivas de críticos como Michael Billington , quien elogió la actuación de Povinelli. ^{[ 32 ]} La obra se presentó hasta el 8 de julio de 2023. ^{[ 33 ]} En abril de 2023, Rediker anunció que volvería a colaborar con Tony Buba en una película que narraría la creación de la obra. ^{[ 34 ]}

Informed by Marxian economics, Rediker's works explore their respective subjects in systemic terms while emphasizing human class-consciousness and agency. Historical narratives that emphasize the plights of the poor and oppressed are known as a people's history or "history from below".

Rediker has contended that few historians have used this narrative outside of American history, and that the struggle of the oppressed has had a largely unspoken yet considerable impact on world history.^[28] Though Rediker has admitted that finding primary sources from his subjects can be difficult, he says that the "history from below" approach better humanizes his subjects and offers a more detailed point of view than other historical narratives.^[28] Rediker regards this approach as “the most democratic and inclusive kind of history".^[26]

Rediker has written numerous works on pirates and sailors as pre-industrial laborers and how piracy was a direct result of collectivism and solidarity between sailors.^[35] Viewing the pirates as a "motley crew", Rediker highlights the multiculturalism and alliances between pirate crews.^[36] This approach puts perspective on the egalitarianism of some pirate crews. In Villains of All Nations, Rediker wrote that by mutinying or capturing a ship, pirates were seizing the means of maritime production from merchant capitalists and declaring their ships to be under common ownership.^[37]

According to Rediker, pirates were not just targeted by the authorities because of their illegal activities, but also for liberating and radicalizing laborers.^[10] Rediker argues that this form of imperial oppression is still present in the modern day, with Rediker using the United States' actions against revolutions in Vietnam, Cuba, and Nicaragua as examples of such persecution.^[10]

Como historiador de la historia popular, Rediker subraya la crueldad de los capitanes de barco y la miseria de los barcos negreros en sus obras sobre la esclavitud. En la introducción a *El barco negrero: una historia humana* , Rediker presenta cuatro dramas: las relaciones entre los capitanes de los barcos negreros y su tripulación, las relaciones entre los capitanes de los barcos negreros y sus esclavos, el conflicto entre los esclavizados y la imagen abolicionista de los barcos negreros. ^{[ 38 ]} En esa misma introducción, Rediker resume que el vínculo entre los barcos negreros y las relaciones sociales moldeó el mundo moderno a pesar de sus historias poco conocidas. ^{[ 39 ]}

Al describir lo que quería lograr en su libro, La rebelión del Amistad: una odisea atlántica de esclavitud y libertad , Rediker comentó que quería llamar la atención sobre cómo el comercio de esclavos contribuyó al auge del capitalismo . ^{[ 40 ]} Rediker mencionó que el papel que tuvieron los barcos de esclavos en la formación del concepto de raza fue fundamental para el libro, y continuó diciendo que el concepto de raza se creó a bordo de los barcos de esclavos cuando los africanos multiétnicos fueron etiquetados como negros y sometidos a violencia y terror. ^{[ 12 ]}

Al investigar La Amistad , Rediker buscó explorar los antecedentes culturales de quienes estaban a bordo y la sociedad Poro de Sierra Leona para brindar una perspectiva sobre la planificación de la revuelta de esclavos. ^{[ 29 ]} Según Rediker en la introducción de La rebelión de La Amistad: una odisea atlántica de esclavitud y libertad , Estados Unidos contra La Amistad y el drama judicial subsiguiente habían eclipsado la historia de la rebelión inicial en el barco. ^{[ 41 ]} Muchas de las fuentes en el libro de Rediker sobre La Amistad provienen de periodistas y visitantes que entrevistaron a los acusados ​​durante sus 27 meses en Connecticut . ^{[ 42 ]} Rediker termina la introducción expresando cómo los eventos que rodearon a La Amistad pueden verse a través de la lente de la historia de un pueblo, argumentando que coloca a los rebeldes "de nuevo en el centro de su propia historia y de la historia más amplia que ayudaron a construir". ^{[ 43 ]}

The Lernaean Hydra, a serpentine water monster in Greek mythology and Roman mythology, is used as a metaphor for commoners and persecuted groups throughout many of Rediker's works. Hercules, the slayer of the many-headed beast, represents the Atlantic capitalists.^[44] This metaphor is most prominent in The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic co-written with Peter Linebaugh.

Rediker and Linebaugh argue that the classically educated rulers and businessmen of the era compared themselves to Hercules, with his twelve labors being likened to the efforts of organizing and structuring the transatlantic economy.^[44] Hercules' battle against the Hydra is thus symbolic of "the difficulty of imposing order on increasingly global systems of labor."^[45] Rediker and Linebaugh label oppressed groups such as felons, indentured servants, African slaves, pirates, and religious radicals as some of the many heads of the Hydra.^[46] Though this symbolism indicates cooperation between these various groups, Rediker has also made clear that it can depict the chaos of a disorganized and conflicted Atlantic proletariat.^[47]

Rediker coined the term "terracentrism" to describe the tendency of historians to solely concentrate on history that occurs on dry land.^[36][4] Rediker has maintained that this view obfuscates how history can be made on slave and migrant ships, and that migrants and seafarers incited social, cultural, and political progress.^[36]

During a 2017 interview with French daily newspaper Libération, Rediker defined himself as far-left. He stated that while he was well-read on communism and anarchism, he did not identify with any political party in particular.^[4]

Rediker is a human rights activist, and has criticized governments that issue the death penalty. In a 2013 interview with French magazine La Vie des Idées, Rediker said he was inspired to write a book on La Amistad after a 1998 meeting with Mumia Abu-Jamal at SCI-Green's death row.^[48][47] Abu-Jamal, convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, had been incarcerated since 1982. Rediker recounted that "he described to me the moment when he first got an active death warrant, meaning, he was given a slip of paper with his date to die on it. That was a moment of connection between race and terror."^[48] Rediker saw that he could explore this relationship between race and terror on slave ships. Abu-Jamal's death conviction was overruled in federal court in 2001, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole in 2011.

Rediker supports reparations for slavery, and has praised authors such as Ana Lucia Araujo who have chronicled the history of the reparations movement.^[12][49] In an interview published in Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Rediker described slavery as an "African holocaust" and likened slave ships to concentration camps.^[12] During that interview, Rediker described the impact of slavery in the United States and its ramifications:

I feel as though the presence of slavery in everything that we do now makes it very hard to talk about. In other words, if it was safely in the past, it would be easy to have a discussion about slavery, but the fact is that we still live with its consequences: Deep structural inequality, poverty, discrimination, premature death for large numbers of people who live in our cities, highly radicalized mass incarceration. If you think of slavery as an injustice that produced lasting consequences across many generations, then you have a responsibility to commit to doing something about it.^[12]

Rediker is married to Wendy Z. Goldman, a professor of Soviet history at Carnegie Mellon University.^[11][50] He has two children.^[51]

From 1984 to 1985, Rediker resided in Moscow.^[51] Rediker is a connoisseur of Haitian art and owns a private collection.^[52]Brandin Knight, the associate head coach for the Rutgers Scarlet Knights and a University of Pittsburgh alumnus, has cited Rediker as an influence in obtaining his degree in history.^[53]

Rediker has earned a number of awards for his works. He was given the Organization of American Historians' Merle Curti Award in 1988 and 2008.^[54] In 2008, Rediker was awarded the George Washington Book Prize, one of the largest book awards in the United States.^[55] In 1988, Rediker received the John Hope Franklin Publication Prize from the American Studies Association.^[3] In 2001, Rediker was presented with the International Labor History Book Prize from the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University.^[3] In 2015, Ghosts of Amistad: In the Footsteps of Rebels won the John E. O'Connor Film Prize for Best Historical Documentary.^[30]

Rediker has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, American Council of Learned Societies, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.^[3][56] The Organization of American Historians designated Rediker as a distinguished lecturer from 2002 to 2008.^[3]

• Marcus Rediker's website
• Marcus Rediker on C-SPAN
• Audio lecture "Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age" by Marcus Rediker
• The Sea is Red: An Interview with Marcus Rediker Mute Magazine
• Marcus Rediker's Haitian art collection
• Video of a talk entitled The Real Pirates Of The Caribbean by Marcus Rediker for Bristol Radical History Group
• Marcus Rediker Credentials