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Mannix and Cowley include many historical illustrations, but most of these have a loose connection to the text.
Spears acknowledged an earlier history from 1894 by [[W. E. B. Du Bois]], [[The Suppression of the African Slave-trade to the United States of America]] as one of his primary sources, although their books could not be more different. De Bois based his account on his PhD thesis at Harvard University<ref>{{Cite web
|title=Primary Sources: The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade
|date=1 October 2023
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|publisher=LSU Press
|url=https://lsupress.org/9780807101490/the-suppression-of-the-african-slave-trade-16381870/
|access-date=14 June 2024}}</ref> and by Oxford University with an introduction by [[Saidiya Hartman]] in 2014.
The Oxford edition was part of a project to republish De Bois's major works as a series and it includes the series introduction by [[Henry Louis Gates Jr]].<ref>{{cite book |first1=W. E. B. |last1=Du Bois
|editor=Henry Louis Gates Jr.
|others=
|title=The Suppression of the African Slave Trade,
|date=2014
|publisher=Oxford University Press
|url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-suppression-of-the-african-slave-trade-to-the-united-states-of-america-the-oxford-w-e-b-du-bois-9780199384341?cc=us&lang=en&
|access-date=14 June 2024}}</ref>
De Bois intended his account to be "a small contribution to the scientific study of slavery and the American Negro". Du Bois kept his account matter of fact, data driven, and almost entirely without emotion, although in her introduction, Saidya Hartman wrote that he later regretted that. Du Bois mainly focused on the political debates about the slave trade in the United States and the various, mostly ineffective, legislative attempts to suppress it.
Each chapter was preceded by a precise list of contents. There were no illustrations except of a diagram that illustrated the legislative history of the Act of 1807 (effective in 1808) which banned the importation of slaves to the United States. He included long quotations from debates. For example, he devoted a full page to quote a speech by [[Peter Early]] a representative from Georgia arguing that African captives brought illegally to the United States after the effective date should sold and not set free. Early concluded that if such law were enacted, "The whole people will rise up against it. Why? Because to enforce it would be to turn loose, in the bosom of the country, firebrands that would consume them." As indicated by the title, his book was primarily restricted to the slave trade to the United States after the colonial period and was more detailed on that aspect of the trade (particularly the political aspects) than Mannix and Cowley.<ref>{{cite book
|first1=W. E. B. |last1=Du Bois
|title=The Suppression of the African Slave
|date=1904
|pages=v
|location=New York
|publisher=Longmans
|url=https://archive.org/details/suppressionofafr01dubouoft/mode/2up
|access-date=
<ref>{{Cite web
|title=Peter Early, 1773-1817
|date=14 May 2013
|url=https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/peter-early-1773-1817/
|website=New Georgia Encyclopedia
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240617214004/https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/peter-early-1773-1817/
|archive-date=17 June 2024
|url-status=live}}</ref>
==Contents and Attribution==
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==Narrative==
In contrast to Spears, Mannix and Cowley were respectful of African culture: "There were kingdoms and commonwealths comparable in size with many European nations, and even the smaller tribes had definite and often complex cultures . . . Many of their communities had highly involved religions, well-organized economic systems, efficient agricultural practices, and admirable codes of law. We have only in recent years begun to appreciate West Africa's contribution to sculpture, folk literature, and music".<ref>Mannix and Cowley 1962, p. 10.</ref>
In contrast to Du Bois, their account was emotive. It had no quotations of long political speeches, but rather focused on narratives of slave ship captains and crews.<ref name="Dorsey">{{cite journal
|first1=Joseph C. |last1=Dorsey
|date=2006▼
|title=Review [Untitled]▼
|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25613524▼
|journal=Caribbean Studies▼
|volume=34 ▼
|issue=1 ▼
|pages=317{{ndash}}325▼
|via=JSTOR▼
|access-date=7 June 2024}}</ref>
''Black Cargoes'' begins with Christopher Columbus and the brutal suppression of revolt by Indians. As recounted in a Time magazine review, the black slave trade to the Americas ironically began as a humanitarian effort. Colonist in [[Hispaniola]] had attempted to enslave the Indians but they were not suited to the work, which led to "thousands of Indians dying in corrals, and scores of men and women burned alive in the hope that their fate would induce the others to work" (Mannix's description). In 1515, moved by the suffering of the Indians, a priest [[Bartolomé de las Casas]], petitioned [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor]], to import slaves from Africa to relieve the Indians. His request was granted, although the motive for granting the request may have been at least partially economic. In 1518, 4000 African slaves were sent to the island.<ref>Mannix and Cowley 1962, pp. 1{{ndash}}3.</ref>
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|access-date=March 28, 2024}}</ref>
A reviewer in [[The Journal of Caribbean History]] recommended a quartet of narrative histories of the slave trade for non-specialist and college students that included ''Black cargoes''.<ref name="Dorsey"/>
▲|first1=Joseph C. |last1=Dorsey
▲|date=2006
▲|title=Review [Untitled]
▲|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25613524
▲|journal=Caribbean Studies
▲|volume=34
▲|issue=1
▲|pages=317{{ndash}}325
▲|via=JSTOR
▲|access-date=7 June 2024}}</ref>
Others on his list included ''The Atlantic Slave Trade'' (2003), by Johannes Postma,<ref>{{cite book
|first1=Johannes |last1=Postma
| |||