Along with Aldon Nielson, the editors of this volume agree: "the middle passage may be the great repressed signifier of American historical consciousness." The essays in this collection demonstrate the repressed memory of lives crossing within the academy, oral traditions, and the stone walls of slave fortresses as well as the liturgy and spiritual and religious practices throughout the African slaves living in the Diaspora. Descendants of African slaves living in the Diaspora are bearers of an "unforgetful strength" that manifests itself in every aspect of culture. Black writers, artists, and musicians in the New World have tested the limits of cultural memory, finding in it the inspiration to "speak the unspeakable."
Joanne M. Braxton teaches at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Maria I. Diedrich teaches American studies at University of Muenster, Germany.