by Simon Schama
Sharp’s Frankpledge ideal and
slave trade in
West Indian Maroons in
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone Company
changes in Clarkson’s instructions from
Clarkson’s disagreements with
demise of
ending of slave trade and
new royal charter of (1800)
original guarantees of
petition of grievances sent to
setting aside of Clarkson’s promises and
settlers’ petition to, requesting Clarkson’s return
settlers’ revolts against
Sharp’s reservations about
storehouse of
supply ships sent by
waterfront lots commandeered by
Sierra Leone Gazette
Sinclair, Molly
Skinner, Stephen
Slave bounties
Slave insurrections
British incitement of
Jeremiah case and
in St Bartholomew’s parish
southerners’ embrace of Patriot cause and
in Surinam
trials for, under Negro Act
in West Indies
in Wilmington
Slave trade
American, after passage of Abolition Act
deaths during Atlantic crossing in. See also Zong drownings
Dolben Bill and
of France
Liberated Africans taken from, settled in Sierra Leone
opposition to. See Abolitionists, abolition print showing interior views of ship in
in Sierra Leone
Small, Sophia
Smallpox
Smeathman, Henry
Smith, Abraham
Smith, Adam
Smith, Caesar
Smith, Francis
Smith, George
Smith, Hugh
Smith, Reverend
Smith, Sukey
Smith, Thomas
Smith, William
Smithers, Anthony
Smock, Barnes
Snow
Snowball, Mary
Snowball, Nathaniel
Société des Amis des Noirs
Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
Society of the Bill of Rights
Society of West India Planters and Merchants
Somerset
Somerset, James
arguments on behalf of
counsel in trial of
facts of case and
judgement in case of
South Carolina
black loyalist soldiers and partisans in
black soldiers proposed for Patriot side in
embrace of Patriot cause in
Provincial Congress of
resistance to loyalist defeat in
slave bounties as recruitment incentive in
slave rebellions in (1810s)
slaves’ flight from plantations in
see also Charleston
South Carolina Rangers
Spain
Sperling, Mr (surveyor)
Squire, Matthew
Stamp Tax (1766)
Stapylton, Robert
Steele, Mary
Steele, Murphy
Steele, Thomas
Stephens, Moses
Stevens, Daniel
Stewart, Allen
Stewart, Charles
Stewart, John; See Cugoano, Ottobah Stiff, Thomas
Strange, Thomas
Strong, Jonathan
Stuart, Charles
Stubbs, Robert
Sullivan’s Island
Sumter, Thomas
Surinam, slave insurrection in
Swedenborgians
Talbot, Charles Talbot, 1st Baron
Tamar
Tarleton, Banastre
Taxation
in Sierra Leone
see also Quit rents
Taylor, Captain
Taylor, Charles
Taylor, Mr and Mrs (Baptist missionaries)
Taylor, William
Tea duty
Temne people
agreements with, for land for Sierra Leone settlements
“Black Prince” and
Freetown rebels and
Pomona mission and
Thomas, John
Thomas, Juno
Thomas, Phillis
Thomas, Thomas
Thompson, George
Thompson, Jane
Thompson, Thomas Boulden
Thomson, Elizabeth and Betty
Thomson, Grace
Thornton, Henry
petition of grievances and
quit rents and
termination of Clarkson’s governorship and
Thornton, Samuel
Tilley, John
Titus. See Tye, Colonel
Tom, King (Temne chief)
Tomkin, Samuel and Mary
Tomkins, Lydia
Tom’s River, skirmishes at
Traveller
Treasury, British
Treaty of Paris (1786)
Trespass Act
Trinity Church, New York
Trumbull, Jonathan
Trusty
Tybee Island
Tye, Colonel
Typhus
Union
Van Sayl, Cathern
Van Sayl, Cornelius
Vassa, Gustevus. See Equiano, Olaudah Venus
Vergennes, Charles Gravier, Count
Vermont
slavery abolished in
Vernon
Vestal, HMS
Villeinage
Virginia
black loyalist soldiers and partisans in. See also Dunmore, John Murray, 4th Earl of
Cornwallis’s defeat in
embrace of Patriot cause in
restoration of escaped slaves to owners in
restrictions on free blacks in
shirtmen militia in
slave bounties as recruitment incentive in
slave rebellion in (1800)
slaves’ flight from plantations in
Virginia Convention
Virginia Gazette
Volunteers of Ireland
Wadstrom, Carl Bernhard
Wainer, Thomas
Wakerell, Mr (accountant)
Walker, Chloe, Samuel, and Lydia
Walker, David
Walker, Henry
Walker, James
Walker, Thomas
Wallace, Michael
Wallis, Margaret and Judith
Wansey, Nathaniel
Washington, George
Asgill affair and
Carleton’s dealings with
fate of escaped slaves and
flight of slaves from property of
service of blacks in Continental army and
Washington, Henry
Washington, Lund
Watkins, Thomas
Wayne, Anthony
Wearing, Scipio and Diana
Weaver, Richard
Wedgwood, Josiah
Weedon, George
Weedon, Judy
Welsh, Justice
Wesley, John
West, Benjamin
Westcoat, Mary
West India Association
West Indies
boycott of sugar from
free blacks’ emigration to
Maroons from, in Sierra Leone
slave insurrections in
slavery in
slaves taken to, at end of Revolutionary War
see also specific islands
Whipple, William
Whitbread, Samuel
Whitecuffe, Benjamin
Whitecuffe, Sarah
Whitefield, George
Whiteford, Lucy
Whitten, Hannah
Wickham, Samuel
Wilberforce, William
in abolitionist cam
paign
Clarkson’s falling out with
death of
honorary French citizenship awarded to
Sierra Leone settlement and
Wilkes, John
Wilkinson, Charles and Sarah
Wilkinson, Miles
Wilkinson, Moses
Willes, Justice
William IV, King of England (formerly Prince William Henry)
William, HMS
William, Prince (black petitioner)
Williams, Jonathan
Willis, Thomas
Willoughby, John
Wilmington, aborted slave rising in
Wilmot, Sir John Eardley
Wilson, Captain
Wilson, Ellen Gibson
Windsor, Nova Scotia
Winslow, Cato
Winterbottom, Thomas
Wolfe, James
Woman suffrage
Wood, Lieutenant
Woodford, Colonel
Woods, Joseph
World Anti–Slavery Convention (1840)
Wright, Sir James
Wright, Joseph
Wyvill, Christopher
Yamacouba (Bullom queen)
York
York, Duskey, Betsey, and Sally
Yorke, Lord Chancellor
Yorktown, battle of
Young, Dr
Young, Sir George
Zizer, Ansel
Zoffany, Johan
Zong drownings
Acknowledgements
IT WAS MY OLD FRIEND (and one of the cleverest historians I’ve known), Sir Tom Harris, then Consul-General in New York, who provoked this book by saying, over lunch in Columbia University’s Charter Room (the charter in question having been for King’s College and signed and sealed by George II), that, of course, I’d know all about the thousands of free blacks in New
York at the end of the Revolutionary War and what became of them. In fact, I had no clue what he was talking about. Soon, I did. But if he’s responsible for instigating this enterprise, he certainly bears no share of the blame for its shortcomings.
The book could not have been written without the help of my superlative research assistant, Kate Edwards who was my second pair of eyes in the libraries and archives. Rebecca Grunwald helped with research into the Zong case and its impact on the abolitionist movement, and Samantha Earl helped with checking the references. I am deeply grateful to T. K. Hunter for allowing me the use of material from her Columbia Ph.D. dissertation on the Somerset case and its impact in America. Librarians and archivists in three countries could not have been friendlier or more helpful: in the Public Record Office in London, the Allan Library of the Royal Maritime Museum in Greenwich; the New York Public Library; the Public Archives of Nova Scotia in Halifax (where Barry Cahill was especially helpful, notwithstanding his scepticism about the entire Black Loyalist phenomenon); the Shelburne Historical Society Library and Archives; but, above all, I am grateful to the hospitable and immensely helpful librarians of the manuscript and rare book division of the New-York Historical Society, where two volumes of the John Clarkson journal are preserved, especially for allowing me the precious gift of reading them in the original rather than on microfilm.
Two provosts of Columbia University, Jonathan Cole and Alan Brinkley have been exceptionally generous in granting me leave to research and write the book. In my Columbia office Alicia Hall Moran has been a tower of strength in innumerable ways, not least in the hunting down of obscure and out of print secondary sources.
In the midst of my Nova Scotian pilgrimage, following the black loyalist trail, Calvin Trillin was kind enough to interrupt scholarly labours with hatfuls of chanterelles, generous hospitality and really good jokes.
Thanks and apologies are due to Michael Carlisle, James Gill, Michael Sissons and Alice Sherwood for having been generous enough to read the manuscript at various stages and offer invariably helpful and encouraging comments as it staggered along its wayward progress. As ever, Rosemary Scoular, Sophie Laurimore, Jo Forshaw and Sara Starbuck at pfd made sure the author didn’t go completely off his trolley on days when he was supposed to be simultaneously filming, scriptwriting and reading proofs. My thanks also to Tom Stoppard for generously allowing me to steal his title.
Particular thanks are due to Christopher Fyfe who was kind enough to read the book for errors and saved me from many of the most egregious. Sean Wilentz, Eric Foner and James Basker have been generous enough to cast a discerning eye over the American portion of the book. Any remaining errors are, of course, entirely my own.
My editor at Ecco, Dan Halpern, has been a model of forbearance, generosity, enthusiasm, and critical smarts—especially since Rough Crossings turned out to be not quite the book he commissioned. I am also grateful to E.J. Van Laren for seeing the book through to publication in the United States and to Jill Bernstein and Jane Beirn in helping it get to the public.
My long-suffering family—Ginny, Chloe and Gabriel—have had to endure the roughest of crossings—namely surviving the more than usually stormy behaviour of the author during this particular literary voyage to which they have responded with the usual pouring of oil on troubled waters. I can’t thank them enough for helping me get the thing to harbour. Gus has been a brick.
Friends at two institutions—Harvard University’s Committee on History and Literature, and Queen Mary College, London, were kind enough to invite me to lecture about the arguments and stories rehearsed in this book. Their response—especially the comments of Homi Bhabha and Stephen Greenblatt at Harvard helped me clarify the history. And a number of other good friends and colleagues—Alan Brinkley, Eric Foner, Deborah Garrison and Stella Tillyard, all thought the history was worth a book to itself rather than the quarter of a book originally assigned it. Most adamant on that subject, as well as frankly open-hearted, wise and loyal on almost all my peculiar adventures in the history trade, was the scholar and good friend, Lisa Jardine, who invited me to lecture at Queen Mary College; whose infectious enthusiasm for the project made it absolutely impossible for me to have pusillanimous second thoughts, and to whom the book is lovingly dedicated with a measure of awestruck admiration for her bravery, brilliance and all round menschlichkeit.
About the Author
SIMON SCHAMA is University Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University; a bestselling, prize-winning author and broadcaster; and an art critic and cultural essayist for the New Yorker whose writing has also appeared regularly in the New Republic, The Guardian, and The New York review of Books.
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ALSO BY SIMON SCHAMA
Patriots and Liberators:
Revolution in the Netherlands 1780-1813
Two Rothschilds and the Land of Israel
The Embarrassment of Riches:
An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age
Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution
Dead Certainties: Unwarranted Speculations
Landscape and Memory
Rembrandt’s Eyes
A History of Britain, Volume I:
At the Edge of the World, 3500 B.C.-1603 A.D.
A History of Britain, Volume II:
The Wars of the British, 1603-1776
A History of Britain, Volume III:
The Fate of the Empire, 1776-2000
Hang Ups: Essays on Painting (mostly)
Credits
Cover design by Allison Saltzman
Cover art: The Battle of Bunker Hill, c. 1776–7, by Winthrop Chandler, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (background); Portrait of a Slave in Chains © Wilberforce House, Hull City Museums and Art Galleries, UK (inset); both courtesy of the Bridgeman Art Library
Copyright
Illustrations not available for electronic edition.