Pool of London: The name given to the original Port of London on the Thames, which ran alongside the Tower of London.
Scuffle-Hunters, River Pirates: Gangs operated in the Port of London, frequently stealing cargo from ships and quays. One estimate put the merchants’ losses at £500,000 a year, including 2 percent of all sugar imported.
tide waiter: An official who checked boats coming into the Thames to ensure goods were not sold on the way to the Legal Quays for a tax-free profit.
Gravesend: In 1782, the first customs house in the town, Whitehall Place, was built opposite the present Customs House to house tide waiters, who had previously been based at the port’s inns.
lighter: A masted barge used for transporting goods to and from larger ships to port.
Black Loyalists: Between April and November 1783, those slaves who fought for the British in the American War of Independence were given their freedom and evacuated. As well as coming to London, many went to Nova Scotia. Their names are recorded in The Book of Negroes.
Ebele: An Igbo name, meaning mercy.
Sambo: A common name given to African slaves by their white masters. In 1736, a young, dark-skinned cabin boy or slave known as Sambo was buried in a field near Overton, Lancashire.
Igbo: An ethnic group of southeastern Nigeria.
Chapter 12
Kew Gardens: The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, near London, were founded in 1759 in what was formerly Kew Park. George III improved the gardens, helped by Sir Joseph Banks.
Chapter 13
a trained one: According to papers belonging to a Liverpool merchant and slave trader, male slaves were fetching £40 each in 1772.
Hibiscus elatus: Jamaica’s national tree.
Chapter 14
image of a Negro man: Several slave owners incorporated images of slaves on their crests. John Hawkins, the famous explorer, for example, was proud of the source of his wealth. His crest bears the image of an African in bondage.
larva of the botfly: The botfly lives mainly in South America, although it is also found in Jamaica, but only the larvae of Dermatobia hominis will live in humans.
bridle: An appalling instrument of torture designed to dig into the tongue so that the wearer had to remain silent, these were not confined to slaves, but to ordinary women, too, when it was called a scold’s bridle or “the branks.” Although not widely employed in the eighteenth century, the last reported use was in 1856 in Lancashire.
Chapter 15
some Negroes: The naturalist and physician Sir Hans Sloane observed : “The Negroes from some Countries think they return to their own Country when they die in Jamaica, and therefore regard death but little, imagining they shall change their condition, by that means from servile to free, and so for this reason often cut their own Throats.” He visited Jamaica in 1688 and later published two volumes of his experiences.
Source: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources-rx/files/chapter-6-resistance-19110.pdf
Chapter 16
first snows: According to contemporary accounts, the winter of 1783–84 was one of the coldest in living memory.
Chapter 17
“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”: The carol was first published in 1760.
Chapter 18
Sir Joseph’s famous herbarium: Sir Joseph Banks collected thousands of specimens during his voyage on HMS Endeavour. Many of the 30,000 plant specimens were pressed on sheets and can be seen today in London’s Natural History Museum.
Dr. Grainger: James Grainger was a Scottish doctor who, in 1764, published Essay on the more common West-India Diseases. It was the first work devoted to the diseases and treatment of slaves in the Caribbean.
sufferance wharf: Where cargo can be inspected by customs and excise authorities.
Graviora manent: The English translation is “heavier things remain,” or “the worst is yet to come.”
Chapter 19
golden dome: The famous ball has sat on top of St. Lawrence’s church tower in West Wycombe since 1761 and can be seen for miles around.
Chapter 20
pomade: Mashed apples were a common ingredient in this scented ointment that was often used on the hair and scalp.
Chapter 21
lime wash: A traditional plaster wash for covering exterior walls. Color pigments were often added.
freeze over: The River Thames at London froze over several times during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries during what is known as the “Little Ice Age.”
spring tide: Not a tide during springtime, these exceptionally high tides occur during the full and new moon.
mud larks: Mainly children, they would scavenge the shoreline at low tide for anything of value.
Execution Dock: Located on the shore at Wapping, this was the place of execution for those pirates, smugglers, and mutineers condemned to die by the Admiralty Courts. It was last used in 1830.
Chapter 22
bur: A prickly husk of a seed or fruit.
Chapter 23
livor mortis: A purple discoloration of the skin that occurs after death when blood collects and sets in the lower parts of the body.
parenchyma: The functional parts of an organ in the body.
phthisis: An archaic term for consumption or tuberculosis.
Chapter 24
Wapping or Deptford: The currents of the Thames tended to wash bodies to these locations.
Henry Fielding: Together with his younger half-brother John, he helped found the Bow Street Runners, in 1749, described by some as London’s first police force.
hothouse: A slave hospital.
Chapter 25
Solanum: A large genus of flowering plants.
Chapter 26
dika tree: Indigenous to West Africa, the tree can grow to 40 meters and produces a fruit.
Mount Afadjato: The highest mountain in Ghana.
Chapter 28
Bewildered Negro men, women, and children: This description is adapted from John Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea, Brazil, and the West Indies, published in 1737: “This is a Rule always observed, to keep the Males apart from the Women and Children, to handcuff the former . . .”
Spittle Fields: An area of London, now called Spitalfields, where there has been a market since 1638.
Chapter 29
Jonathan Strong: A young black slave from Barbados who had been beaten by his master and abandoned. He recovered, but a few years later was recaptured and sold to a planter. A legal challenge followed and Strong regained his freedom. He died five years later.
Over dinner, we were told: This account of brutality is inspired by John Gabriel Stedman’s Narrative of Five Years’ Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam (1796). It became an abolitionist publication.
Source: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources-rx/files/chapter-6-resistance-19110.pdf
Chapter 30
Maroon weed: The naturalist and physician Henry Barham described the well-known use of savanna flower (Echites umbellata, commonly called Maroon weed) as a poison in Jamaica in 1710: “It is too well known, and it is pity that ever the negro or Indian slaves should know it, being so rank a poison: I saw two drams of the expressed juice given to a dog, which killed him in eight minutes time . . .”
Source: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources-rx/files/chapter-6-resistance-19110.pdf
I spoke with another physician: This fictional excerpt is inspired by another account by Henry Barham of his experience with Maroon weed.
Source: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources-rx/files/chapter-6-resistance-19110.pdf
thumbnail: Barham wrote that some slaves scooped up poison under their thumbnail, and, “after they drink to those they intend to poison, they put their thumb upon the bowl, and so cunningly convey the poison; wherefore, when we see a negro with a long thumb-nail, he is to be mistrusted.”
Source: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources-rx/files/chapter-6-resistance-19110.pdf
Chapter 31
Fevillea cordifolia: Natural historian Patrick B
rowne wrote of Fevillea cordifolia, also known as antidote cocoon, in 1756: “The kernels are extremely bitter, and frequently infused in spirits for the use of the negroes: a small quantity of this liquor opens the body and provokes an appetite, but a larger dose works both by stool and vomit. It is frequently taken to clear the tube, when there is any suspicion of poison, and, often, on other occasions.”
Source: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources-rx/files/chapter-6-resistance-19110.pdf
Mr. Clarkson: Thomas Clarkson (1760–1846) was an English abolitionist and a leading campaigner against the slave trade in the British Empire. He helped found the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade and to achieve the passing of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which ended British trade in slaves. In his later years Clarkson campaigned for the abolition of slavery worldwide.
Sharp: Granville Sharp (1735–1813) was one of the first English campaigners for the abolition of the slave trade. His involvement in the Jonathan Strong case led him to study English law, which he declared to be “injurious to natural rights.”
Our Quaker friends: In 1783 an informal group of six Quakers presented a petition containing over three hundred signatures against the slave trade to Parliament.
Chapter 33
There are those whom slaves: This excerpt is based on an account in a book written in 1800 called Obi; Or, The History of Three-Fingered Jack, by William Earle, and inspired by the story of an escaped slave called Jack Mansong, who practiced obeah.
Chapter 34
George Coffee House in Chancery Lane: Anyone interested in an advertisement offering a fourteen-year-old Negro slave boy for £25 was asked to apply to this coffee house in 1756.
Chapter 35
Yule log: For centuries it was customary to burn such a log in the fireplace at Christmas. The tradition dates back at least three hundred years.
Chapter 36
West Wycombe: A historic village, now largely owned by the National Trust, and home to West Wycombe Park, a Palladian mansion, the Hellfire Caves, and St. Lawrence’s Church, with its famous golden ball.
Chapter 37
Middle Passage: The voyage of slave trading ships from the west coast of Africa across the Atlantic. It was the longest, hardest, and most horrific part of the journey.
John Wilkes: One of the most colorful and controversial figures of the eighteenth century, best known for his prominent political career and eventful personal life.
murder of a Negro: In 1811, Arthur William Hodge became the first West Indian slave owner to be executed for the murder of a slave considered his property.
Chapter 39
mummer: An actor and entertainer who is usually part of a troupe of fellow actors who travel from place to place.
Chapter 40
blind man’s buff: The children’s game dates back to at least the sixteenth century.
hunt the slipper: The game is described as a primeval pastime in Oliver Goldsmith’s 1776 novel The Vicar of Wakefield.
wassailers: A group of men who visited homes to enact an ancient ritual to wish good cheer to residents.
Chapter 42
frozen grip: The winter of 1783–84 was one of the most severe on record in England. Many modern experts attribute this to the effect of the eruption of the Laki fissure in Iceland, which sent millions of tons of ash into the atmosphere, blocking out the sun.
Chapter 43
almanac: The London Almanack for Year of Christ 1783 was published by the London Stationers’ Company.
screw tourniquet: Also known as a Petit tourniquet, after its inventor Jean-Louis Petit (1674–1750), this was used to stop excessive bleeding during amputation.
wretch: In his 1774 account of the brutal treatment of slaves in the Dutch colony of Surinam, the Scottish-Dutch soldier John Gabriel Stedman described how a slave was suspended to a gallows by means of a hook through his ribs and left to die. His subsequent book was illustrated by the famous artist William Blake and caused an outcry against slavery in Britain.
Chapter 44
popliteal aneurysm: A large swelling in the artery behind the knee. A London surgeon, named Wilmer, wrote in 1779 that “there is not, that I know, a single case upon record where that operation has succeeded.” The famous surgeon Percivall Pott (1714–1788) advocated amputation as being the best treatment for popliteal aneurysms that were causing severe pain.
Chapter 45
rotten borough: A small constituency in the United Kingdom with only a few voters that could be used by a patron to gain a seat in the House of Commons.
John Hunter: A Scottish surgeon and anatomist, born in 1728, and often regarded as the father of modern surgery.
Charles Byrne: An eight-foot-tall Irishman who exhibited himself in London in 1782–83.
Chapter 47
incision: This fictional account of surgery on a popliteal aneurysm was inspired by observations made by an Italian surgeon, Paolo Assalani, who was present when John Hunter first successfully performed the operation on a coachman in 1785. The account is featured in Wendy Moore’s The Knife Man.
Chapter 49
clarify the law of England: During a lengthy court case in 1772, the slave James Somersett was freed by the judge, Lord Mansfield, on the grounds that slavery was so “odious” that the benefit of doubt must prevail on Somersett’s behalf, although, in practice, the law remained ambiguous.
pregnant: Small bumps around the nipples, called Montgomery’s tubercles, appear during pregnancy and remain afterward.
Chapter 50
James Somersett: See Chapter 49.
carrying the massa’s child: Sexual abuse was endemic between enslaved women and their enslavers. The Rev. William Smith’s account, written in the early eighteenth century, is one illustration. He wrote of a Negro woman giving birth to both a black child and one of mixed race, pointing out: “Her Husband had carnal knowledge of her, just before he went out to his work, and as soon as he was gone, the White Overseer went to the Hut, and had the like carnal knowledge.”
Source: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources-rx/files/chapter-6-resistance-19110.pdf
Chapter 52
self-inflicted wound: Studies show many suicides choose an exposed area of flesh to stab, so their clothing is not damaged.
roundel: In 1787 the renowned potter and reformer Josiah Wedgwood produced medallions bearing the famous inscription Am I not a man and a brother. The inscription Am I not a woman and a sister did not appear until 1828.
Chapter 53
Congress of the Confederation in Maryland: The Congress ratified the Treaty of Paris on January 14, 1784, in the Senate Chamber of the Maryland State House, formally ending the Revolutionary War.
Chapter 54
litmus test: Robert Boyle (1627–1691) discovered that litmus paper turns bluish-green when in contact with alkalis.
Chapter 57
George and Dragon: An early-eighteenth-century coaching inn, still a hotel to this day. A secret tunnel is rumored to run between the hotel and the famous Hellfire Caves. The ghost of a serving girl, who was found dead in the caves, is said to haunt the inn.
The Lazarus Curse (Dr. Thomas Silkstone Mystery) Page 32