The Slave Ship (62 page)

41
Trotter,
Observations on the Scurvy,
19-20; Testimony of Trotter,
HCSP,
85, 87.

42
Ibid., 119, 117, 120.

43
Testimony of Trotter,
HCSP,
88-89. Noble was sure that this “very troublesome turbulent man” wanted to kill him, and he might have been right. See Testimony of Noble,
HCSP,
113.

44
Testimony of Noble,
HCSP,
110, 112.

45
Noble commanded 162 men; 118 sailed on the first two voyages, but 11 of them died, leaving 107 who could have sailed with Noble on another voyage. Those who sailed on the first voyage (1781-83) had two opportunities to re-sign with Noble, making for 168 chances altogether. Of this number only thirteen names recur on the muster rolls, and even this modest number overstates crew persistence. Two men (John Davis and John Shaw) were apparently mates; Joseph Noble was probably the captain’s son; and four others appear to have been “boys” apprenticed by parents. Of the remaining six, three had such common names—John Jones, Edward Jones, and John Smith—we cannot be sure they were the same person voyage to voyage. That leaves a total of three sailors who can be identified with certainty as having signed on a second time with Captain Noble: Peter Cummins and Robert Hartshorn sailed on the second voyage and again on the third. The third, Pat Clarke, sailed on the first voyage and again on the second, but he apparently thought better of it and deserted Noble in Kingston, Jamaica. See Testimony of Noble,
HCSP,
112;“A Muster Roll for the Brooks, Clement Noble, from Africa and Jamaica,” Port of Liverpool, April 15, 1783, Board of Trade 98/43; “A Muster Roll for the Brooks,” October 6, 1784, BT 98/44; “A Muster Roll for the Brooks,” April 29, 1786, BT 98/46.

46
Captain John Adams,
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), 9.

47
Clarkson,
History,
vol. II, 187; Lapsansky, “Graphic Discord,” 202; Oldfield,
Popular Politics and British Anti-Slavery,
163.

48
Clarkson,
History,
vol. II, 115. In the late eighteenth century, terms like “savage,” “barbarian,” and “civilized” invoked an entire theory of social progress and development—a stadial theory of history in which European civilization stood at the pinnacle, representing the highest stage of human evolution. Cries of “savagery” and “barbarism” had long been weapons as Europeans built their empires and subdued the peoples of the world. Within this understanding, trade was considered a source of virtue and a means of civilizing the non-European world. The more that other parts of the world traded with Europe, the less “savage” and “barbarian”—and the more like Europe—they would become. See Philip Gould,
Barbaric Traffic: Commerce and Antislavery in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003).

49
Clarkson,
An Essay on the Comparative Efficiency,
58.

50
Ibid., 48.

51
John Wesley had made the point as he addressed the slave-trade merchant in 1774: “It is you that induce the African villain, to sell his countrymen; and in order thereto, to steal, rob, murder men, women and children without number: By enabling the English villain to pay him for so doing; whom you over pay for his execrable labour. It is your money, that is the spring of all, that impowers him to go on: So that whatever he or the African does in this matter, it is all your act and deed. And is your conscience quite reconciled to this? Does it never reproach you at all? Has gold entirely blinded your eyes, and stupefied your heart?” See his
Thoughts upon Slavery
(London, 1774; rpt. Philadelphia, 1778), 52.

52
Emma Christopher,
Slave Trade Sailors and their Captive Cargoes, 1730
-
1807
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 164-168.

53
his quotation appeared with the image of the
Brooks
and commentary in
Address to the Inhabitants of Glasgow, Paisley, and the Neighbourhood, concerning the African Slave Trade, by a Society in Glasgow
(Glasgow, 1790), 8. Marcus Wood writes, “There is an awful rigor to the design.” See his
Blind Memory,
29. See also Oldfield,
Popular Politics and British Anti-Slavery,
165; E. P. Thompson, “The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century,”
Past and Present
50 (1971), 76-136.

54
Finley, “Committed to Memory,” 16; Wood, “Imagining the Unspeakable,” 216-17.

55
The phrase “diabolical calculations” was Clarkson’s. See
History,
vol. II, 556. “Calculated inches” comes from William Roscoe’s poem
The Wrongs of Africa
(London, 1788). See also Ottobah Cugoano,
Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery
(orig. publ. London, 1787, rpt. London: Penguin, 1999), 46, 85; J. Philmore,
Two Dialogues on the Man-Trade
(London: J. Waugh, 1760), 36, 37, 41.

56
Anstey,
Atlantic Slave Trade and Abolition,
293, 315, 375-76, 398, 412.

57
W. E. B. DuBois,
The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade in the United States of America, 1638
-
1870
(orig. publ. 1896 ; Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, Inc, 1970), 41, 43-45, 48, 51, 52, 56, 60-62, 68, 73, 85-86, 104, 108-9.

58
TSTD,
#80673.

1
“John Cranston’s testimony to the Grand Jury, June 15, 1791,” Newport Historical Society, Newport, Rhode Island, Box 43, folder 24. All quotations of Cranston and the grand jury foreman to follow come from this document. More information about the
Polly
can be found in
TSTD
, #36560. The
Litchfield Monitor
reported on June 8, 1791, that Caleb Gardiner, another leading slave trader, was part owner of the vessel. The original number of captives, 142, appears in the Deposition of Isaac Stockman and Henry Clannen taken before Joannes Runnels, Governor of the Island of Saint Eustatius, October 2, 1794, Rhode Island Historical Society, Newport, Rhode Island.

2
A “young Lady” who wrote about the incident aboard the
Polly
in the
American Mercury
(June 6, 1791) raised the possibility that Cranston had accused D’Wolf in retaliation for “bad usage” aboard the ship. This is unlikely for two reasons: first, had this been the case, Cranston would have brought a different charge against D’Wolf, probably suing him for excessive violence, bilked wages, or pinched provisions, from which he might have gotten some personal benefit; second, and more important, if this had been an issue, Stockman and Clannen would certainly have mentioned Cranston’s bias against the captain in their own deposition. They did not.

3
Cranston added that the woman was “about middle aged” and had been fed while in the foretop. He said he did not know whether she would have recovered had she not been thrown overboard.

4
The “young Lady” wrote to her brother, using the case to remonstrate with him against his own involvement in the slave trade, but did not express a principled opposition. A second writer gave no self-description and offered no opinion on the case. A third, a “gentleman from Rhode Island,” was clearly an abolitionist. All three had heard the same story, although two of them did not name Captain D’Wolf, while the third called him “Captain Wolf.” Even though two of the letters were published before Cranston was questioned by the grand jury, they all told the same story: the enslaved woman came down with the smallpox; Captain D’Wolf asked the crew to help him throw her over-board (two of the three actually said he “ordered” them) and was refused; the captain then performed the act himself. See extract of a letter from a young Lady, Rhode Island, to her Brother, in this State, date May 24, 1791,
American Mercury,
June 6, 1791; Extract of a letter from Newport (Rhode-Island) dated the 5th month 9th, 1791,
Litchfield Monitor,
June 8, 1791; Extract of a letter from a gentleman in Rhode-Island,
Connecticut Courant
, July 18, 1791.

5
The gentleman abolitionist seemed to know the most about the case and may have played a role in getting Cranston before the grand jury. He recounted that Captain D’Wolf had been heard to say of the sick woman, “Damn her, she must go overboard.” He added that “both mates” had died on the voyage, perhaps hinting at the spread of disease, and that “the people” (meaning several members of the crew, not only Cranston) had reported the atrocity, which caused a public outcry, and the collecting of affidavits by public authorities. See the
Connecticut Courant,
July 18, 1791. D’Wolf’s evasive voyage, whether in the
Polly
or some other ship he or his family members owned, is not listed with him as captain in the
TSTD.
It is possible that he sailed with another family member.

6
Deposition of Isaac Stockman and Henry Clannen, 1794. The
TSTD
notes that the number of crew was twelve, but Stockman and Clannen say they were fifteen in number. It should also be noted that Cranston had everything to lose and nothing to gain by taking on a powerful figure like D’Wolf and that Stockman and Clannen, on the other hand, had everything to gain and nothing to lose. Indeed they might have been paid to make the testimony, as captains frequently bribed sailors to defend themselves against legal accusations of wrongdoing. Clannen, it should be remembered, had been implicated by Cranston in the murder. Moreover, the timing of their deposition, more than three years after the event in question, suggests the guiding hand of Captain D’Wolf.

7
George Howe,
Mount Hope; A New England Chronicle
(New York: Viking Press, 1959), 105, 106.

8
In the larger history of the slave trade, this was a most unusual event. As far as can be told from surviving evidence, living captives were not thrown overboard often. The reasons for this were not moral but largely economic. Moreover, captains did not often seek the opinions of their crews, nor did sailors often refuse their masters’ wishes. To do so was to risk a charge of insubordination, punishable by flogging, and even mutiny, punishable by death. A voyage to compare to that of the
Polly
is treated by Mitra Sharafi in “The Slave Ship Manuscripts of Captain Joseph B. Cook: A Narrative Reconstruction of the Brig
Nancy
’s Voyage of 1793,”
Slavery and Abolition
24 (2003), 71-100.

9
Isaac Manchester, who brought the charges against D’Wolf in St. Thomas, was not present on the
Polly
when the event in question took place, but he had “heard” about it. It is not accidental that five months after the judge’s favorable ruling for D’Wolf, Manchester was made captain of a Bristol, Rhode Island, slaver named the
Sally,
which was owned by the D’Wolf family. Manchester would remain an employee of the D’Wolf family for three and a half years (three voyages) and then became a slave-ship owner, and eventually a merchant, in his own right. See Rufus King Papers, box 6, folder 2, New-York Historical Society;
TSTD,
#36616, #36668, #36680.

10
No Rum!
—
No Sugar! or, The Voice of Blood, being Half an Hour’s Conversation, between a Negro and an English Gentleman, shewing the Horrible Nature of the Slave-Trade, and Pointing Out an Easy and Effectual Method of Terminating It, by an Act of the People
(London, 1792).

11
Howe,
Mount Hope,
130-31.

12
Elizabeth Boody Schumpeter, ed.,
English Overseas Trade Statistics, 1697
-
1808
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960), 60-62 ; Susan B. Carter, ed,
Historical Statistics of the United States: Earliest Times to the Present
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006); Robin Blackburn,
The Making of New World Slavery: From the Baroque to the Modern, 1492
-
1800
(London: Verso, 1997), 581. This paragraph draws on Seymour Drescher,
Econocide: British Slavery in the Era of Abolition
(Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1977). See his estimate that 92.3 percent of the cotton imported between 1801 and 1805 was slave-dependent (86).

13
Memoirs of Crow,
22, 32.

14
Three quotations: Testimony of Thomas Wilson, 1790, in
HCSP,
73:12; Interview of Mr. James,
Substance,
17; Testimony of Captain John Ashley Hall, 1790,
HCSP,
72:233. For more general information, see Testimony of James Morley, 1790,
HCSP,
73:164, 168; Testimony of Thomas Bolton Thompson, 1790,
HCSP,
73:173; Testimony of Ninian Jeffreys, 1790,
HCSP,
73:240; Testimony of James Towne, 1791,
HCSP,
82:30; Testimony of John Simpson, 1791,
HCSP,
82:44; Testimony of Dr. Harrison, 1791,
HCSP,
82:53; Testimony of Robert Forster, 1791,
HCSP,
82:133-34; Testimony of Mark Cook, 1791
HCSP,
82: 199 ; Testimony of Hercules Ross, 1791,
HCSP,
82:260.

15
Interview of Thompson,
Substance,
25; Interview of Mr. James,
Substance,
17; Interview of Ellison,
Substance,
41. Thomas Clarkson apparently found out about these diseased, destitute sailors and the acts of compassion by the enslaved in his interviews with sailors in 1787-88. Afterward he and other abolitionists apparently made it a point to ask other sailors and seafaring people about these matters, and hence they accumulated testimony on the subject from twenty-three people for parliamentary hearings and
Substance of the Evidence.

16
Interview of Mr. James,
Substance,
17; Interview of Ellison,
Substance,
41; Interview of Jeffreys,
Substance,
92. For examples of the use of the concept “shipmate” by a captain and sailor (referring to enslaved Africans), see
Memoirs of Crow,
159, 129 ;
Three Years Adventures,
144, 425-27. On the close relations between the enslaved and slave-trade sailors in the “Masterless Caribbean” in the late 1780s and 1790s, the time of abolitionist ferment, see Julius Sherrard Scott III, “The Common Wind: Currents of Afro-American Communication in the Era of the Haitian Revolution,” Ph.D. dissertation, Duke University, 1986, 134-46.

17
Historical archaeologists of the Caribbean are not yet able to confirm that European sailors were buried in African graveyards, but the leading figure in the field for Jamaica, Roderick Ebanks, considers the proposition to be likely: “Based on what I know about enslaved persons, what you relate would not be unusual” (personal communication to the author, July 31, 2006). Future excavations in urban cemeteries will likely address the question.

18
Memoirs of Crow,
291.

19
The centrality of violence and terror was argued in Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker,
The Many-Headed Hydra: Sailors, Slaves, Commoners, and the Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic
(Boston: Beacon Press, 2000).

20
My thinking here has been influenced by Paul Gilroy,
The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993), and Ruth Gilmore,
Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California
(Berkeley: University of California Press; 2006).