The Slave Ship (57 page)

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.

18
Mathew Strong to Captain Richard Smyth, January 19, 1771, Tuohy papers, 380 TUO (4/4). It seems that relatively few captains actually owned shares of their vessels or cargo. Of forty-one captains (on forty-five ships) to whom letters of instruction were written, we know the investors and shipowners in thirty-nine cases. Only four of the thirty-nine captains owned shares: Williams Speers was listed as the “third owner” of the
Ranger
in 1767. David Tuohy was the “fourth owner” of the
Sally
in the same year. Thomas Baker and Henry Moore were the seventh and sixth owners, respectively, of their vessels in 1776 and 1782;
TSTD,
#91273, #91327, #17886, #80578. See also Madge Dresser,
Slavery Obscured: The Social History of the Slave Trade in an English Provincial Port
(London and New York: Continuum, 2001), 29 ; Behrendt, “Captains in the British Slave Trade,” 107; Coughtry,
The Notorious Triangle,
49-50.

19
Instructions to Captain Pollipus Hammond, Newport, January 7, 1746, Donnan III, 138.

20
Letter of Instruction from James Clemens to Captain William Speers of the ship
Ranger,
3 June 1767, Tuohy papers, (4/2). For Clemens’s voyages, see
TSTD,
#90408, #90613, and #90684.

21
Leyland to Kneal, 21 May 1802, 387 MD 42, Leyland & Co., ships’ accounts; Henry Wafford to Captain Alexander Speers of the Brig
Nelly,
September 28, 1772, Tuohy papers, 380 TUO (4/6).

22
James Clemens, Folliott Powell, Henry Hardware, and Mathew Strong to Captain David Tuohy of the ship
Sally,
3 June 1767, Tuohy papers, 380 TUO (4/2). See also Robert Bostock to Captain Peter Bowie of the
Jemmy,
July 2, 1787, Robert Bostock Letter-books, 1779-1790 and 1789-1792, 387 MD 54-55, LRO. For a discussion of sailors’ mutiny, see chapter 8.

23
Hobhouse, Ruddock, and Baker to Barry, October 7, 1725, in Donnan II, 327-28; Humphry Morice to Jeremiah Pearce, March 17, 1730, “Book Containing Orders & Instructions for Jere[miah] Pearce 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. 7th Voyage. Anno 1730,” Morice Papers; Unnamed Owner to Captain William Ellery, January 14, 1759, in Donnan III, 69.

24
Humphry Morice to Stephen Bull, October 30, 1722, “Book Containing Orders & Instructions for Stephen Bull Commander of the
Sarah
for the Coast of Africa with an Invoice of his Cargoe and Journal of Trade &c. on the said Coast. 2d Voyage. Anno 1722,” Morice Papers;
Memoirs of Crow,
22.

25
John Chilcott, John Anderson, T. Lucas, and James Rogers to Captain George Merrick, Bristol, 13th October 1774, Account Book of the
Africa,
1774-1776, BCL; Boyd to Connolly, July 24, 1807, in Donnan IV, 568.

26
Robert Bostock to Captain James Fryer of the
Bess
, no date (but 1791), Bostock Letter-books, 387 MD 54-55. See
TSTD,
#80502. I have come across no other such threat in merchants’ letters of instruction.

27
Chilcott et al. to Merrick, October 13, 1774, Account Book of the
Africa,
1774-1776, BCL; Stephen D. Behrendt, “Crew Mortality in the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the Eighteenth Century,”
Slavery and Abolition
18 (1997), 49-71.

28
Ibid. See also K. G. Davies, “The Living and the Dead: White Mortality in West Africa, 1684-1732,” in Stanley L. Engerman and Eugene D. Genovese, eds.,
Race and
Slavery in the Western Hemisphere: Quantitative Studies
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975), 83-98.

29
Starke to Westmore, in Donnan IV, 76; Joseph and Joshua Grafton to Captain ——, November 12, 1785, in Donnan III, 78
-
79; Chilcott et al. to Merrick, October 13, 1774, Account Book of the
Africa;
Robert Bostock to Captain Samuel Gamble, November 16, 1790, Bostock Letter-books 387 MD 54-55; Chilcott et al. to Baker, August 1, 1776, Account Book of the
Africa
.

30
Joseph and Joshua Grafton to Captain——, November 12, 1785, in Donnan III, 80
.
William Snelgrave to Humphry Morice, Jaqueen, April 16, 1727, Morice Papers.

31
Thomas Boulton,
The Sailor’s Farewell; Or, the Guinea Outfit, a Comedy in Three Acts
(Liverpool, 1768);
Newport Mercury,
July 9, 1770. When Boulton later wrote
The Voyage, a Poem in Seven Parts
(Boston, 1773), he erased what must have been a painful memory (if he was writing about the same voyage). He did not mention the slaves or their uprising. See
TSTD,
#91564.

32
An Account of the Life,
19 ;
Three Years Adventures,
6. Boulton failed to mention one of the most important means of recruitment: the crimp, a labor agent who used all kinds of nefarious means to get sailors aboard the slavers.