The Coffin Ship: Life and Death at Sea during the Great Irish Famine

Abstract

the seventeenth century than he presents in Global Trade and Commercial Networks. Blood, Sweat and Earth also provides a range of statistics that explore the nature of labor and the productivity (or lack of) of various regions, including production in the Congo at various points in the twentieth century. Charts are also provided that visualize official numbers for both slaves used in the diamond district and carats mined in Brazil for the period between 1740 and 1785 and 1740 to 1806, respectively, and the official numbers of carats mined in West Africa, which are amalgamated into five-year blocks for the years between 1920 and 1979. The numerous images included in the book provide visuals on the nature of diamond extraction and accentuate the segregation and de-humanization of African laborers. Vanneste was able to secure some of the more graphic images that Marcia Pointon (2018) also used to show the cavity searches that stripped Africans were subjected to at the De Beers Kimberley Mine circa 1884. The discussion of blood diamonds presented within Blood, Sweat and Earth can also be used to connect with a broader discussion of conflict minerals that has plagued the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Although Vanneste provides extensive examples and research on the diamond industry, areas for further investigation include German involvement in the diamond industry before the First World War and diamond production in the Northwest Territories in Canada. There is some German content as Blood, Sweat and Earth explores how the Holocaust affected the diamond cutting industry in Nazi-occupied Europe and briefly discusses German involvement in the diamond industry through its South West Africa colony prior to the First World War. Although Vanneste cites Steven Press (2018) in his endnotes, Press’s work Blood and Diamonds: Germany’s Imperial Ambitions in Africa (2021) elucidates the German policies adopted for diamond production in its South West Africa colony and the effects it had on the German economy. This book, which was published the same year as Blood, Sweat and Earth, also connects with some of the themes Vanneste explores regarding the control of diamond deposits and issues related to labor, and would be a nice supplemental book for Vanneste’s broader study. Furthermore, the section in the sixth chapter pertaining to Canada charts the development of diamond production in the Northwest Territories, although a discussion of the impacts that mining has had in the Canadian north and its Indigenous population is largely absent from the chapter. That said, Vanneste briefly probes this issue in his epilogue, and it is expected that this will be a topic of further exploration if he is to write a book exploring the consequences diamond mining has had on the environment and control over indigenous lands (21). Although Blood, Sweat and Earth is not the first examination to shed light on the “dark” history of diamonds, it is one of the more comprehensive examinations in terms of its geographical and temporal scope. That said, Vanneste is aware there are further areas of investigation into this history that his book does not provide an in-depth analysis of, such as smuggling and theft (331). Vanneste’s archival research and the use of primary sources makes this book academically oriented, however, the writing style and content makes it digestible for a popular readership. Although some of the diamond production and finishing sites Vanneste explores has been terrain explored by other scholars, including Karin Hofmeester, Blood, Sweat and Earth is an engaging read that nicely complements and elaborates on some of the research in this field.