Christopher, Emma L; (2002) The sons of Neptune and the sons of Ham: A History of Slave Ship Sailors and their Captive Cargoes. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

This thesis studies sailors who worked onboard British and North American slave ships between 1750 and 1808. Its starting point is the discrepancy between maritime historiography and that of the slave trade: in the former seamen appear as radical, anti-authoritarian figures who were far more accepting of black men and women than other occupational groups in this era. In slave trade literature, by contrast, sailors appear as shadowy figures ready to do the captain's bidding, which generally meant abusing, maltreating and assaulting men and women of African origin. Through detailed analysis of the lives and working conditions of those who were lowly employees in the slave trade, it is possible to see that the much-vaunted radicalism of seamen as a group grew at least in part from their work onboard 'guinea ships'. Freedom and fair payment for labour were hardly unconnected to slavery and the slave trade, and sailors who were involved in the delivery of slaves to the Americas had ample occasion to compare their own situation with that of slaves. It was this which, to some extent, led to their famous politicised protests for freedom and better pay around the Atlantic rim. In addition the slave trade brought European seamen into contact with people of African origin on a large scale. Sailors on slave ships worked alongside free Africans and Afro-Caribbeans at all points of their journey, and often had men of African origin as colleagues even during the middle passage. While seamen were certainly the perpetrators of many of the middle passage's atrocities, racial constructs and interracial interaction were vastly more complex during a slaving voyage than is often accepted.

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