10 “Written on the Coast of Africa,” 273; Wilkinson, The Wandering Patentee, vol. III, 22. For additional biographical information, not all of it accurate, from contemporaries, see “Notes, James Field Stanfield,” Notes and Queries, 8th series 60 (1897), 301-2; Transcript of notes by John William Bell (1783-1864) on the facing title of the Sunderland Library copy of The Guinea Voyage, A Poem in Three Books . . . to which are added Observations on a Voyage to the Coast of Africa, in a series of letters to Thomas Clarkson A.M. by James Field Stanfield, formerly a mariner in the African trade (Edinburgh: J. Robertson, 1807). It was claimed by two who knew Stanfield that he testified before the House of Commons about the slave trade, but neither Pieter van der Merwe nor I have been able to substantiate this. Sunderland historian Neil Sinclair has recently discovered evidence of Stanfield’s involvement in the hearings, not as one who testified but as one who helped to publicize evidence given against the slave trade. See the handbill entitled “Slave Trade” and signed “J.E.S.” See DV1/60/8/29, Durham County Record Office, Durham, England.
11 David Roberts, Manuscript Record Book, 1796-1864, f. 197, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, copy in the Guildhall Library, as cited in van der Merwe, “James Field Stanfield (1749/1750-1824): An Essay on Biography,” 1. For a song by Stanfield, see “Patrick O’Neal, An Irish Song,” Weekly Visitant; Moral, Poetical, Humourous, &c (1806), 383-84.
12 Observations, 21, 35, 11. The crew mortality Stanfield witnessed was exceptional, although not unprecedented.
13 Observations, 36.
14 The Eagle was built in Galway, Ireland, almost thirty years earlier, in 1745, and was therefore more than suitable for retirement as a “floating factory.”
15 Captain John Adams described “Gatto” as a main trading town of fifteen thousand inhabitants, located about forty miles inland. See his Sketches taken during Ten Voyages to Africa, Between the Years 1786 and 1800; including Observations on the Country between Cape Palmas and the River Congo; and Cursory Remarks on the Physical and Moral Character of the Inhabitants (London, 1823; rpt. New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation, 1970), 29.
16 Captain Wilson filed the muster list with the customs house on May 11, 1776. See Board of Trade (BT) 98/36, Liverpool muster rolls, 1776, NA. Stanfield mistakenly recalled that only three members of the original crew made it back to Liverpool. I am grateful to Christopher Magra for research assistance on this matter. See Observations, 5, 19, 26. For more information on the voyage of the True Blue, see TSTD, #91985.
17 The quotations in this section appear in Observations, 7, 6, 8, 9, 7; Guinea Voyage, 3-4, 5, 8, 6, 4, 5, 6, 7.
18 “Written on the Coast of Africa,” 273.
19 The quotations in this section appear in Observations, 10, 13, 14, 11, 12, 15; Guinea Voyage, 10.
20 These same insults and indignities during the passage to Africa were reiterated in verse. See Guinea Voyage, 23-24.
21 The quotations in this section appear in Observations, 15-16, 17-18, 23; Guinea Voyage, 19. For another description of seamen working up to their armpits in water, see the Testimony of James Arnold, 1789, in HCSP, 69:128.
22 The quotations in this section appear in Observations, 21, 19, 20, 25; Guinea Voyage, 15, 13, 33, 14, 17, 30, 31, 17, 18, 26, iv, 3, 23, 19. One can see the likely influence of the Quaker Anthony Benezet here. For an excellent account of Benezet’s life and thought, see Maurice Jackson, “ ‘Ethiopia shall soon stretch her hands unto God’: Anthony Benezet and the Atlantic Antislavery Revolution,” Ph.D. dissertation, Georgetown University, 2001.
23 The story of Abyeda appears in Guinea Voyage, 29-31. Stanfield associates Abyeda with a specific place, the Formosa River, when he writes, “Ne’er did such nymph before her brightness lave / Within Formosa’s deep, translucent wave” (29). It should also be noted that Quam’no is a variant of the Akan/Gold Coast name Quamino. Thomas Clarkson included an account of an African woman he called “Abeyda” in a letter to Comte de Mirabeau, November 13, 1789, Papers of Thomas Clarkson, Huntington Library, San Marino, California, f. 11. He makes reference in the same letter to the slave ship as a “floating dungeon,” a phrase used by Stanfield.
24 van der Merwe, “James Field Stanfield (1749/1750-1824): An Essay on Biography,” 3.
25 The quotations in this section appear in Observations, 26, 27, 28-29, 30, 31, 32-33, 29 ; Guinea Voyage, iv, 19, 26, 21, 27, 28, 34, 16, 24, 32, 22.
26 The quotations in this section appear in Guinea Voyage, 34, 35, vi.
27 Monthly Review; or, Literary Journal, vol. 81 (1789), 277-79.
28 Observations, 30. Stanfield refers here to parliamentary debates about the slave trade and, it would appear, to Reverend William Robertson, a Scottish Presbyterian theologian and historian who opposed the trade.
Chapter 6: John Newton and the Peaceful Kingdom
1 John Newton, Letters to a Wife, Written during Three Voyages to Africa, from 1750 to 1754 (orig. publ. London, 1793; rpt. New York, 1794), 61-62.
2 “Amazing Grace,” in The Works of the Reverend John Newton, Late Rector of the United Parishes of St. Mary Woolnoth and St. Mary Woolchurch-Haw, Lombard Street, London (Edinburgh: Peter Brown and Thomas Nelson, 1828), 538-39 ; John Newton, Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade (London, 1788); Testimony of John Newton, 1789, in HCSP, 69: 12, 36, 60, 118; 73: 139-51. For an account of Newton’s life as a minister, see D. Bruce Hindmarsh, John Newton and the English Evangelical Tradition: Between the Conversions of Wesley and Wilberforce (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996). For a history of his most famous hymn, see Steve Turner, Amazing Grace: The Story of America’s Most Beloved Song (New York: Ecco Press, 2002).
3 John Newton, Journal of Slave Trader, 1750-1754, ed. Bernard Martin and Mark Spurrell (London: Epworth Press, 1962); Newton, Letters to a Wife; John Newton Letter-book (“A Series of Letters from Mr.——to Dr. J——[Dr. David Jennings],” 1750-1760, 920 MD 409, Liverpool Record Office; John Newton, Diaries, December 22, 1751-June 5, 1756, General Manuscripts C0199, Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University; Thomas Haweis, An Authentic Narrative of Some Remarkable and Interesting Particulars in the Life of Mr. Newton, Communicated, in a Series of Letters to the Rev. Mr. Haweis, Rector of Aldwinkle, Northamptonshire (orig. publ. London, 1764; rpt. Philadelphia, 1783).
4 The quotations in this section appear in An Authentic Narrative, 14, 22, 29, 33, 36- 37, 41, 44, 43, 47, 56, 57, 58, 74, 76, and other sources as indicated by paragraph.
5 John Newton to David Jennings, October 29, 1755; Newton Letter-book, f. 70.
6 Newton, Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade, 98.
7 Newton, Letters to a Wife, 21-22.
8 Newton, Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade, 101. In the insurrection one crew member and three or four Africans were killed. See Testimony of Newton, HCSP, 73:144. For more information on this voyage, see TSTD, #90350.
9 Newton to Jennings, August 29, 1752, Newton Letter-book, ff. 28-30. The quotations in this section appear in Newton, Journal of Slave Trader, 2, 9-10, 12-15, 17-22, 24-25, 28-34, 37-38, 40, 42-43, 48-50, 52, 54-56, 59, and other sources as indicated by paragraph.
10 TSTD, #90350.
11 For another instance of readying the swivel guns at mealtime, see “Voyage to Guinea, Antego, Bay of Campeachy, Cuba, Barbadoes, &c.” (1714-23), Add. Ms. 39946, f. 10, BL.
12 Newton, Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade, 106, 107.
13 Newton, Letters to a Wife, 29.
14 Newton, Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade, 110-11; Testimony of John Newton, HCSP, 69:118, 73:144, 145.
15 On provisioning on the West African coast, see Stephen D. Behrendt, “Markets, Transaction Cycles, and Profits: Merchant Decision Making in the British Slave Trade,” William and Mary Quarterly 3rd ser. 58 (2001), 171-204.
16 Newton, Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade, 110.
17 Newton, Letters to a Wife, 86; Entry for December 22, 1751, Newton Diaries, ff. 2, 5. The quotations in this section appear in Newton, Journal of Slave T
rader, 65, 69-72, 75-77, 80-81, and in other sources as indicated by paragraph.
18 TSTD, #90418. The labors of the crew on this voyage were essentially the same as on the previous one: the carpenter worked on the bulkheads and apartments, the platforms, and the barricado; the gunner on the small arms and the swivel guns; the boatswain on the nettings; everyone else doing the fundamental work of sailing the ship.
19 Newton, Letters to a Wife, 77, 71-72 ; Entry for August 13, 1752, Newton Diaries, f. 37; An Authentic Narrative, 85-86.
20 Entry for July 23, 1752, Newton Diaries, f. 23. Around this time Newton wrote to the Anglican divine David Jennings to propose that someone (himself, actually) write a manual of religious instruction especially for sailors, one that would feature a short, simple combination of biblical verse, prayer, and sermon, all geared to the “particular temptations and infirmities incident to foreign voyages.” See Newton to Jennings, August 29, 1752, Newton Letter-book, f. 37.
21 On the round-robin, see Marcus Rediker, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates, and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700-1750 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 234-35.
22 Entry for November 19, 1752, Newton Diaries, ff. 49-50.
23 Ibid. For more on the Earl of Halifax, see TSTD, #77617.
24 Ibid.
25 Entry for December 11, 1752, Newton Diaries, ff. 61, 64.
26 TSTD, #90419. The quotations in this section appear in Newton, Letters to a Wife, 118-20, 126, 129-30, 143, 149, 188, and in other sources as indicated by paragraph.
27 Newton, Journal of Slave Trader, 88, 92-93.
28 Ibid., 88.
29 Ibid., 92-93.
30 Entry for August 29, 1753, Newton Diaries, f. 88.
31 Newton, Letters to a Wife, 83-84; An Authentic Narrative, 95; Newton to Jennings, August 29, 1852, Newton Letter-book, f. 26; “Amazing Grace,” in The Works of the Reverend John Newton, 538-39 ; Testimony of Newton, HCSP, 73:151
32 Entry for December 8, 1752, Newton Diaries, f. 53.
33 Newton, Letters to a Wife, 137. See also Testimony of Newton, HCSP, 73:151.
Chapter 7: The Captain’s Own Hell
1 John Newton to Richard Phillips, July 5, 1788, published in Mary Phillips, Memoir of the Life of Richard Phillips (London: Seeley and Burnside, 1841), 29-31.
2 The phrase “subordination and regularity” was used by Lord Kenyon in Smith v. Goodrich, in which a mate sued the captain of a slave ship for a violent assault. See the Times, June 22, 1792. For similar legal reasoning, see Lowden v. Goodrich, summarized in Dunlap’s American Daily Advertiser, May 24, 1791. For a broader account of the captain’s powers in the merchant shipping industry, see Marcus Rediker, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates, and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700-1750 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), ch. 5.
3 Letter of Instructions from Henry Wafford to Captain Alexander Speers of the Brig Nelly, 28 September 1772, David Tuohy papers, 380 TUO, 4/6, LRO; Captain Peter Potter to William Davenport & Co., November 22, 1776, “Ship New Badger’s Inward Accots, 1777,” William Davenport Archives, Maritime Archives & Library, MMM, D/DAV/10 /1/2. See TSTD, #92536.
4 Memoirs of Crow, quotations at 67, 13, 2, 29.
5 TSTD, #83183. What Crow recalled as his first ship does not appear in the TSTD.
6 Stephen Behrendt, “The Captains in the British Slave Trade from 1785 to 1807,” Transactions of the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire 140 (1990), 79-140; Jay Coughtry, The Notorious Triangle: Rhode Island and the African Slave Trade, 1700-1807 (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981), 50-53; Africanus, Remarks on the Slave Trade, and the Slavery of Negroes, in a Series of Letters (London: J. Phillips, and Norwich: Chase and Co., 1788), 50. See also Emma Christopher, Slave Trade Sailors and Their Captive Cargoes, 1730-1807 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 35-39. Behrendt writes that the British captains who survived several voyages “often acquired great wealth in the slave trade,” especially if they were among the 10 percent who were also part owners of their vessels. Herbert Klein notes that a captain could accumulate a “re-spectable fortune” in two or three voyages. See his The Atlantic Slave Trade (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 83. For examples of captains who got in trouble with employing merchants, see Amelia C. Ford, ed., “An Eighteenth Century Letter from a Sea Captain to his Owner,” New England Quarterly 3 (1930), 136-45; Robert Bostock to James Cleveland, January 20, 1790, Robert Bostock Letterbooks, 387 MD 54-55, LRO; “William Grice’s Statement of Facts,” King’s Bench Prison, July 2, 1804, “Miscellaneous Tracts, 1804-1863,” 748F13, BL.
7 Letter of Instructions from David Tuohy (on behalf of Ingram & Co.) to Captain Henry Moore of the Ship Blayds, 25 July 1782, Tuohy papers, 380 TUO, (4/9). Another reason Tuohy advised circumspection was that Moore had never been to Cape Coast Castle or Lagos. See TSTD, #80578. For a study of the planning and coordination required of merchants and captains in the slave trade, see Stephen D. Behrendt, “Markets, Transaction Cycles, and Profits: Merchant Decision Making in the British Slave Trade,” William and Mary Quarterly 3rd ser. 58 (2001), 171-204. For an account of business practices, see Kenneth Morgan, “Remittance Procedures in the Eighteenth-Century British Slave Trade,” Business History Review 79 (2005), 715-49.
8 Jacob Rivera and Aaron Lopez to Captain William English, Newport, November 27, 1772, in Donnan III, 264; Thomas Leyland to Captain Charles Watt of the Fortune, April 23, 1805, 387 MD 44, Thomas Leyland & Co., ships’ accounts 1793-1811, LRO. See also Samuel Hartley to James Penny, September 20, 1783, Baillie v. Hartley, exhibits regarding the Slave Ship Comte du Nord and Slave Trade; schedule, correspondence, accounts, E 219/377, NA.
9 Letters of instruction exist for the full range of years under study, 1700-1808, and for each major area of the slave trade: Senegambia, Sierra Leone/Windward Coast, the Gold Coast, the Bights of Benin and Biafra, and Kongo-Angola. For examples early and late in the period, see Thomas Starke to James Westmore, October 20, 1700, in Donnan IV, 76; William Boyd to Captain John Connolly, Charleston, July 24, 1807, in ibid., 568-69. See also Humphry Morice to William Snelgrave, October 20, 1722, “Book Containing Orders & Instructions to William Snelgrave Commander of the Henry for the Coast of Africa with an Invoice of his Cargoe and Journal of Trade &c. on the said Coast. 2d Voyage. Anno 1721”; Humphry Morice to William Snelgrave, October 20, 1722, “Book Containing Orders & Instructions for William Snelgrave Commander of the Henry for the Coast of Africa with an Invoice of his Cargoe and Journal of Trade &c. on the said Coast. 3d Voyage. Anno 1722”; Humphry Morice to William Snelgrave, September 22, 1729, “Book Containing Orders & Instructions for William Snelgrave Commander of the Katharine Galley for the Coast of Africa with an Invoice of his Cargoe and Journal of Trade &c. on the said Coast. 5th Voyage. Anno 1729”; the Humphry Morice Papers, Bank of England Archives, London.
10 Morice to Clinch, September 13, 1722, Morice Papers; Thomas Leyland to Captain Caesar Lawson of the Enterprize, 18 July 1803, 387 MD 43, Leyland & Co., ships’ accounts; Owners’ Instructions to Captain Young, 24 March 1794, Account Book of Slave Ship Enterprize, DX/1732, MMM. See TSTD, #81302.
11 Humphry Morice to Edmund Weedon, March 25, 1725, “Book Containing Orders & Instructions for Edmund Weedon Commander of the Anne Galley for the Coast of Africa with an Invoice of his Cargoe and Journal of Trade &c. on the said Coast. 4th Voyage. March the 25th: Anno 1722”; Morice Papers; Jonathan Belcher, Peter Pusulton, William Foy, Ebenezer Hough, William Bant, and Andrew Janvill to Captain William Atkinson, Boston, December 28, 1728, in Donnan III, 38.
12 Isaac Hobhouse, No. Ruddock, Wm. Baker to Captain William Barry, Bristol, October 7, 1725, in Donnan II, 329 ; Joseph and Joshua Grafton to Captain——, November 12, 1785, in Donnan III, 80.
13 Humphry Morice to William Clinch, September 13, 1722, “Book Containing Orders & Instructions for William Clinch Commander of the Judith Snow for the Coast of Africa with an
Invoice of his Cargoe and Journal of Trade &c. on the said Coast. Voyage 1. Anno 1722,” Morice Papers; Thomas Leyland to Captain Charles Kneal of the Lottery, 21 May 1802, 387 MD 42, Leyland & Co., ships’ accounts; James Laroche to Captain Richard Prankard, Bristol, January 29, 1733, Jeffries Collection of Manuscripts, vol. XIII, Bristol Central Library; Owners’ Instructions to Captain William Young, March 24, 1794, Account Book of Slave Ship Enterprize Owned by Thomas Leyland & Co., Liverpool, DX/1732, MMM; the South Sea Company: Minutes of the Committee of Correspondence, October 10, 1717, in Donnan II, 215; Boyd to Connolly, July 24, 1807, in Donnan IV, 568.
14 John Chilcot, P. Protheroe, T. Lucas & Son, Jams. Rogers to Captain Thos. Baker, Bristol, August 1, 1776, Account Book of the Africa, 1774-1776, BCL. For an account of a voyage of the Africa, see W. E. Minchinton, “Voyage of the Snow Africa,” Mariner’s Mirror 37 (1951), 187-96.
15 Behrendt, “Captains in the British Slave Trade,” 93; “Sales of 338 Slaves received per the Squirrel Captain Chadwick on the proper Account of William Boats Esq. & Co Owners of Liverpool, Owners,” Case & Southworth Papers, 1754-1761, 380 MD 36, LRO.
16 Ball, Jennings, & Co. to Samuel Hartley, September 6, 1784, Baillie v. Hartley, E 219/377. The breakdown was £1,221.1.3 for commission, £634.19.0 for privilege, £84 for wages.
17 The handling of privilege changed over time. In the early eighteenth century, the captain and other officers picked out the slaves they wanted to carry as privilege (reserving to themselves those who would bring the highest prices), but when these slaves died, they frequently switched their choices in order to shift the loss to the owner’s account. In order to prevent this, merchants instructed captains to select—and brand—their slaves on the coast, in full view of other officers. Yet even this was not satisfactory, because all the officers had a community of interest on this issue and might cover for each other. So merchants began to take a different approach, specifying that a privilege slave would not be an individual but an average value of all slaves after they had been sold in the New World port. This created an incentive to take care of all slaves, but it also created an incentive to kill the sickest, weakest slaves once near port, for these would have brought down the average and hence the value of the captain’s privilege. See also Christopher, Slave Trade Sailors, 34-35.
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