The Memoirs of Captain Hugh Crow: The Life and Times of a Slave Trade Captain

(Hardback)

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Hugh Crow was the captain of a slave-trading vessel which made one of the last legal journeys across the Atlantic with its human cargo. This is a highly engaging, rare, first-hand account written by a staunch defender of the slave trade. Crow depicts himself as an enlightened practitioner of the trade, paying close attention to the welfare of his negroes, which he equates with financial success in his business.

Crows memoirs bring to life the everyday aspects of the slave trade and describe the harsh practicalities of life at sea, where on average a fifth of the crew did not survive the crossing. The narrative is peppered with social comment on the propriety of the slave trade and conditions in West Africa and the Caribbean. At the same time, Crow expresses a warm attachment towards individual slaves which was sometimes reciprocated, most remarkably in a song composed by the slaves about him which is reproduced in this book.

The introduction chronicles Hugh Crows life, his entry into the slave trade and his rise as one of the foremost slave captains of his day. Quoting extensively from original sources, it sets him in the context of the eighteenth-century mercantile community which fought hard to defend itself against the humanitarian campaign to abolish the slave trade. He emerges as a colourful if flawed figure from this highly practical, personal, and eye-opening look at the slave trade.

Reviews

"This edition makes available to a wider audience a classic narrative of the slave trade. That Crow's many claims must be treated with utmost caution does not lessen its importance, for that lies in the perspective it gives into a group of men among the most reviled by history for the trade in which they were engaged."--Emma Christopher "International History Review"

Author Bio

John Pinfold is the author of Aintree: The History of the Racecourse. The Bodleian Library produces beautiful and authoritative books which help to bring the riches of Oxford's libraries to readers around the world. They publish on a very wide range of subjects, including catalogues and other titles related to their exhibitions, illustrated and non-illustrated thematic works and facsimiles, gift books, and children's books and stationery.