The Royal Navy and the Slavers

by William Ernest Frank Ward

The Royal Navy and the Slavers , first published in 1969, examines not only the Royal Navy’s 60-year campaign to eradicate slavery, but also the British Government’s diplomatic pressure on other countries to discontinue the slave trade. It analyses Captain’s logs and despatches, and their evidence at trials of the men they captured, as well as looking at the messages from British ambassadors and consuls around the world.

Genres: History

248 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1969

Reviews

[Anastasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did you know that the Bristish Navy patrolled the West Coast of Africa during the 1800s to intercept slave ships bound for the US, Brazil, Cuba, and other places? This book, published in the 1960s, is a really interesting history of a particular time and place, and provides a broad view of world-wide perspectives on slavery-- I didn't learn any of this in my slavery-related history classes.

This book was written in stilted British English and used a lot of source material, including a lot of Navy terminology unknown to me. The author took a somewhat detached perspective, and while he did sometimes focus on individual experiences of enslaved people or Navy patrollers, rarely was I able to establish much empathy for aynone.

I would love to see a fictionalized account of some of these historial people: what would it have felt like to be an African, somehow stolen from your homeland, held in barracoons at the coast until a slave ship arrived to take you away, and suddenly have the ship intercepted and have your freedom returned to you? Where would you go afterward? Would you know how close you came to the horrific experiences suffered by many enslaved people? And what went through the mind of Nathaniel Gordon, a slave ship captain and the first American to suffer the death penalty when he was convicted of slaving in 1862? How did Gordon grow up to become a slaver? And what of the experiences of the British men who spent months and years intercepting slave ships? What opinions did they have about slave ship captains and enslaved people? Were they merely doing their jobs? Any ideas about who should write this book?

[Jo Leishman · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a shame this book has been somewhat lost to history. Naturally, non-fiction doesnt lend itself to the majority of readers so it was hardly likely to garner wide attention, but even so it humbly reflects on a history that seemingly the world wishes to erase. This book would be most appreciated by readers with a care for history (oblivious to the zeitgeist), and with a liking of the neutrality and understateness of English writers seen most in literature from the 1800s through to the 1950s. Maybe this source would be best for students, though, knowing what they are like, i doubt many lecturers would add this to their reading list.

Nothing in this review was given away, now go and read it.