History Commons^™

William Fitzwilliam Owen: Hydrographer Of The African Coast, 1774-1857, Robert Brown

Dr Robert Brown

This biography of William Fitzwilliam Owen reflects an attempt to place the response of one officer to Africa into the context of the political and social views of the early nineteenth century. Officially Owen was a hydrographer and not on suppression patrol, but he committed himself to political actions that pointed out the inconsistencies of the abolitionist crusade. Owen's contributions to African as well as to naval history have received minimal attention from historians. Because of this lack of attention to Owen's life and to the naval role in the early nineteenth century British contacts with Africa, the imperial developments …