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Shipboard Insurrections, The British Government And Anglo-American Society In The Early 18th Century, James Buckwalter

2010 Awards for Excellence in Student Research & Creative Activity - Documents

Captain Francis Messervy, first time captain on the slave ship Ferrers and perhaps overly ecstatic after his most recent successes at sea, maneuvered unprotected below deck to inspect his newly purchased Africans. As he lurched further down into the Ferrers, Messervy would have seen sailors whose duty it was to guard against insurrection and the three hundred or more Africans he had recently purchased following a war between two neighboring polities near Cetre-Crue. What Messervy perceived as good fortune, fellow captain William Snelgrave saw as cause for concern, noting that controlling "many Negroes of one Town and Language" had its …