The Killing Age

The Killing Age

Ch10.1. Textile Factory

This illustration of an English textile factory shows the importance of belting to the Industrial Revolution.

back to images & maps Ch10.1. Textile Factory Ch10.1. Textile Factory. The industrial production of cotton. For millennia, humans around the world have cultivated cotton and produced cloth. Invariably, cotton did not travel far to get to the loom. This all began changing in the eighteenth century and especially in the 1800s. Female laborers are […]

Ch9.2. “Astor Place”

John Jacob Astor helped transform New York City into a metropolis. This contemporary photograph is of the subway station "Astor Place," with a tile depicting a beaver.

back to images & maps Ch9.2. “Astor Place” Ch9.2. “Astor Place,” Kenneth Mills. Professor Mills teaches in the Department of History at the University of Michigan, where he is a distinguished scholar of Latin America. Mills is also an accomplished creative writer and photographer. You can find his work at Dispatches, kennethmills@substack.com.  Professor Mills kindly […]

Ch9.1. Iroquois warrior

Western weapons transformed Indian societies, including the Iroquois. This illustration of a warrior includes a musket and scalping knife.

back to images & maps Ch9.1. Iroquois warrior Iroquois warrior Guns, specifically the musket, profoundly transformed indigenous societies everywhere. In this image, an Iroquois warrior is about to scalp an enemy. Note the flintlock musket, powder horn, and bag holding balls. But note as well the knife held between his teeth, and the hatchet resting […]

Ch8.3. Hastings Factory

New Bedford was all about bringing light to the world, at first through whaling. But the city was also at the forefront of America's fossil economy, as this illustration of the Hastings Factory demonstrates.

back to images & maps Ch8.3. Hastings Factory Hastings Factory, New Bedford. As we discovered in The Killing Age, America’s industrial revolution began at sea with the destruction of whales. Whaling, and New Bedford, was all about producing energy. Unsurprisingly, the city was at the forefront of America’s transition to fossil fuels. This illustration beautifully  

Ch.8.2. Wamsutta Mills

New Bedford was an early site in America's Industrial Revolution. This illustration shows the massive Wamsutta Mills, which produced millions of feet of cloth during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

back to images & maps Ch.8.2. Wamsutta Mills Wamsutta Mills, New Bedford. For a time one of the largest factories in the world, the Wamsutta Mills emerged out of the wealth generated by New Bedford’s whaling industry. Whaling generated fantastic profits, the money landing in the hands of savvy businessmen, who invested their capital into […]

Ch8.1. “Sperm Whaling—Cow and Calf”

Whalers were aware of the social worlds created by their prey, especially sperm whales. This painting depicts a mother trying to protect her mortally wounded child.

back to images & maps Ch8.1. “Sperm Whaling—Cow and Calf” “Sperm Whaling—Cow and Calf,” ca. 1830, unknown artist, New Bedford Whaling Museum. This remarkable watercolor speaks to the intimacy of killing in the age of American whaling. Whalers were aware of the intensely social lives of whales, especially sperm whales…that like them whales cared for […]

Ch7.1. “An Indian [Chickasaw] War Dance.”

Guns became vitally important to American Indian societies. This painting from the eighteenth century shows guns hanging from a Chickasaw building.

back to images & maps Ch7.1. “An Indian [Chickasaw] War Dance.” “An Indian [Chickasaw] War Dance.” Reproduced with Permission of the Royal Danish Library, Copenhagen. NKS 565 kvart:  Friedrich von Reck’s drawings (c. 1734-1736) Western guns revolutionized societies across the globe, no more so in North America. Prior to European contact, indigenous peoples relied on bows and […]

Ch6.extra. Iranun trading warship

An illustration of a Southeast Asian trading ship demonstrates how Western arms were incorporated into indigenous trading networks.

back to images & maps Ch6.extra. Iranun trading warship Iranun trading warship, c. 1890. We are only just beginning to develop a detailed understanding of the commercial networks unfolding across maritime Asia. Most scholarship has concentrated on European traders, beginning with the Portuguese and the Spanish in the early sixteenth century. But European merchants were […]

Ch5.1. Chokwe Gun Pipe

This Chokwe gun pipe from the twentieth century demonstrates the material and symbolic importance of weapons to this West-Central African people.

back to images & maps Ch5.1. Chokwe Gun Pipe Ch5.1. Chokwe Gun Pipe. Metropolitan Art Museum, New York. This precisely rendered gun points to how Western weapons came to occupy an important place in African societies and cultures. The Chokwe rose on the militarization and commercialization of West-Central Africa—slaves, ivory, and rubber. Legendarily violent, early […]

Ch4.5. Nkisi figure

Nkisi sculpture from Congo. These artistic works were meant to provide their owners with spritual protection.

back to images & maps Ch4.5. Nkisi figure Nkisi figure, Kongo. Metropolitan Art Museum. Europeans considered sculptures like these “fetishes”; often they destroyed them. Many, however, have survived. Nkisi generally offered people protection from evildoers. Their makers empowered the sculptures by driving nails into the wood and pressing substances into cavities. Doing so “hid” power […]