This research and workshop project aims to support the development of a multi-part documentary series on the Atlantic slave trade. Creating a New World: The Transatlantic Slave Trade will chart the economic and human cost of the slave trade across the Atlantic basin, underscoring how this expansive system of trade, violence, and profit built the modern world.

Creating a New World: The Transatlantic Slave Trade (Collaboration between Firelight Media and the Simmons Center)

The Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice is engaged in an ongoing collaboration with Firelight Media in making a multi-part documentary on the Atlantic slave trade entitled Creating a New World: The Transatlantic Slave Trade and directed by Stanley Nelson. During the 2017-18 academic year, thanks to the support of the Wyncote Foundation, the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice and Firelight Media hosted a series of four workshops in Providence, Leiden, Johannesburg, and New York City examining different aspects of the Atlantic slave trade. At the Simmons Center, there is an active student research group who have been dedicated to support this work. In the next year, this group will continue to collaborate with Firelight Media and work with Simmons Center Visiting Assistant Professor Zach Sell to create curricular resources to accompany the film series.