The Black Joke: The True Story of One British Ship's Battle Against the Slave Trade

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Well, "saved" is probably too generous a term for the countless liberated enslaved who found themselves forced into British citizenship and might even end up in a situation that looks a lot like indentured servitude. Britain's War Against the Slave Trade: The Operations of the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron 1807–1867.

The surveyors attached examples of her timber; all that now remains of the famous slave-chaser is an envelope filled with brown dust in The National Archives. It is a historical work, describing the actions of one ship as part of the British Navy of the late 1820’s and how it fit into the West AfricaCommand, asked in Freetown.This is a rare book that can appeal equally to those who enjoy tales of the sea, of military history, or of the long struggle of the formerly enslaved and their descendants for civil rights and equality.

Nicholas Sean Hall, “ The Wasp’s ‘Troublesome Children’: Culture, Satire, and the Anti-Chinese Movement in the American West,” California History 90, no. Time and again political and ideological feuds on both the national and international levels shifted the ground that those tasked with stopping the slave trade stood on.Rooks states in the beginning of the book that she hopes to bring to light the harrowing experiences of the enslaved. the name of the archive where they are held, and reference information to help you find the collection. It covers in-depth a piece of the history of the slave trade in Europe and their colonies, the British Naval culture that allowed children as young as 7 to sail, the places from which enslaved people were taken, where they were bound, and what happened to them en route and afterwards, for those captured and set free by the Black Joke. Sharing diverse scholarly perspectives on the impacts of ethnic humor, he argues that assessing the social function of humor requires an understanding of “who says what to whom under what contextual circumstances.

Full of primary sources, diagrams, and images, The Black Joke combines information with voice, the best of straight nonfiction with narrative nonfiction, as it adds to the history of the translatlantic slave trade.But in September 1827, sailing from Lagos with 569 enslaved Africans crammed into a 90ft by 26ft hold, its captain misjudged its ability to outrun the British ship Sybille. After each of the chapters that outline the ship’s accomplishments, the author reproduces the register that lists the enslaved people that had been found aboard. It was purchased and became a part of the fleet of British ships that patrolled the African coast to stop the transatlantic slave trade. In November of the same year, Black Joke was forced to leave the coast of Bioko (Fernando Po), due to fever on board. We learn about the men who commanded her and their various circumstances and motivations, but the story of the ship and her adventures illustrates the complex situation the West Africa Squadron found itself in as it sought to enforce the British ban on the slave trade with just a few ships and a limited budget.