Library Results | Royal Museums Greenwich

A brief history of slavery / Jeremy Black. "Slavery is as old as the world itself and expert and professor Jeremy Black will show that its history is one that is central to our understanding of the modern world. This essential guide is a new global history of slavery from ancient times to the present day, includes fascinating new insights and interpretations including the role of slavery within Islam, the complicity of some Africans in the transatlantic trade, and will raise key questions about the persistence of slavery today and what our governments are doing about it."--Provided by the publisher. 2011. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 326(100)

The seasick admiral : Nelson and the health of the Navy /Kevin Brown. "Horatio Nelson did not enjoy robust good health. From his childhood he was prone to many of the ailments so common in the eighteenth century, and after he joined the Navy he contracted fevers that further undermined his strength: he was even seasick whenever he first put to sea. Nevertheless, he saw more action than most officers, and was often wounded - the loss of the sight in one eye and a shattered arm were the most public, but by no means his only injuries. This personal experience of sickness made him uniquely aware of the importance of health and fitness to the efficient running of a fleet, and this new book investigates Nelson's personal contribution to improving the welfare of the men he commanded. It ranges from issues of diet, through hygiene to improved medical practices. Believing prevention was better than cure, Nelson went to great lengths to obtain fresh provisions, insisted on cleanliness in his ships, and even understood the relationship between mental and physical health, working tirelessly to keep up the morale of his men. Many other people contributed to what became a revolution in naval health but because of his heroic status Nelson's influence was hugely significant, a role which this book reveals in detail for the first time."--Provided by the publisher. 2015. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 613.68(42)"17/18"

British warships in the age of sail, 1793-1817 : design, construction, careers and fates /Rif Winfield. Winfield, Rif. 2010. • FOLIO • 1 copy available. 623.82(42)"1793/1817"

Hornblower's historical shipmates : the young gentlemen of Pellew's Indefatigable /Heather Noel-Smith. "This book sets out the lives of seventeen 'young gentlemen' who were midshipmen under the famous Captain Sir Edward Pellew. Together, aboard the frigate HMS Indefatigable, they fought a celebrated action in 1797 against the French ship of the line Les Droits de l'Homme. C. S. Forester, the historical novelist, placed his famous hero, Horatio Hornblower, aboard Pellew's ship as a midshipman, so this book tells, as it were, the actual stories of Hornblower's real-life shipmates. And what stories they were! From diverse backgrounds, aristocratic and humble, they bonded closely with Pellew, learned their naval leadership skills from him, and benefited from his patronage and his friendship in their subsequent, very varied careers. The group provides a fascinating snapshot of the later eighteenth-century sailing navy in microcosm. Besides tracing the men's naval lives, the book shows how they adapted to peace after 1815, presenting details of their civilian careers. The colourful lives recounted include those of the Honourable George Cadogan, son of an earl, who survived three courts martial and a duel to retire with honour as an admiral in 1813; Thomas Groube, of a Falmouth merchant family, who commanded a fleet of boats which destroyed the Dutch shipping at Batavia, capital of the Dutch East Indies, in 1806; and James Bray, of Irish Catholic descent, who was killed commanding a sloop during the American war of 1812."--Provided by the publisher. 2016. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.335.34

A bitter draught : St Helena : the abolition of slavery 1792-1840 /Colin Fox. "A Bitter Draught tells the story of the abolition of slavery on St Helena, a small mid-Atlantic island, ruled for many years by the English East India Company. Slaves had been brought to the island from the time of its first settlement in 1659. In the late 18th century liberal-minded directors of the company wanted to see the end of slavery but were much less inclined to use their wealth to aid its eradication. Instead, it was left to the governors of the island to move matters forward, first by banning the import of slaves, then by freeing the children born of slave mothers and finally, and iniquituously, forcing the slaves to take out loans to purchase their own freedom. Repayment of these loans, hard enough under the Company's rule, became utterly unfeasible when the island's sovereignty reverted to the Crown in 1834, and the economy crashed. However, this book is more than just a narrative of these events, The author delves deeper into the story of the island's slaves - where they came from, how they lived, their occupations, their personal relationships, what they wore, ate and drank and even their humour. Small clues, hidden in the minutiae of EIC Factory records, have been collected to provide a glimpse into the lives of these unfortunate people. For many it was a terribly sad story, but there were some who strived with courage, fortitude and hard work to overcome all hardships and achieve freedom for both their families and themselves. These are their stories."--Provided by the publisher. 2017. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 306.3/6209973

The Glasgow sugar aristocracy : Scotland and Caribbean slavery, 1775-1838 /Stephen Mullen. "This important book assesses the size and nature of Caribbean slavery's economic impact on British society. The Glasgow Sugar Aristocracy, a grouping of West India merchants and planters, became active before the emancipation of chattel slavery in the British West Indies in 1834. Many acquired nationally significant fortunes, and their investments percolated into the Scottish economy and wider society. At its core, the book traces the development of merchant capital and poses several interrelated questions during an era of rapid transformation, namely, what impact the private investments of West India merchants and colonial adventurers had on metropolitan society and the economy, as well as the wider effects of such commerce on industrial and agricultural development. The book also examines the fortunes of temporary Scottish economic migrants who traveled to some of the wealthiest of the Caribbean islands, presenting the first large-scale survey of repatriated slavery fortunes via case studies of Scots in Jamaica, Grenada, and Trinidad before emancipation in 1834. It, therefore, takes a new approach to illuminate the world of individuals who acquired West India fortunes and ultimately explores, in an Atlantic frame, the interconnections between the colonies and metropole in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries."--Provided by the publisher. [2022] • BOOK • 1 copy available. 381.44094144

The Humphrey Morice papers from the Bank of England, London Morice, Humphry, 1998. • MICROFILM • 2 copies available. 326.1

The emergence of Britain's global naval supremacy : the war of 1739-1748 /Richard Harding. "The British involvement in the war of 1739-1748 has been generally neglected. Standing between the great victories of Marlborough in the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1713) and the even greater victories of the Seven Years War (1756-1763), it has been dismissed as inconclusive and incompetently managed. For the first time this book brings together the political and operational conduct of the war to explore its contribution to a critical development in British history during the eighteenth century - the emergence of Britain as the paramount global naval power. The war posed a unique set of problems for British politicians, statesmen and servicemen. They had to overcome domestic and diplomatic crises, culminating in the rebellion of 1745 and the threat of French invasion. Yet, far from being incompetent, these people handled the crises and learned a great deal about the conduct of global warfare. The changes they made and decisions they took prepared Britain for the decisive Anglo-French clash of arms in the Seven Years War. In this misunderstood war lie some of the key factors that made Britain the greatest naval power for the next one hundred and fifty years."--Provided by the publisher. 2010. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.49"1756/1763"

Le port de la libertâe : Brest, au temps de l'Indâependance amâericaine /Jean-Yves Besseliáevre, Alain Boulaire, Olivier Corre, Lenaèig L'Aot-Lombart, Marjolaine Mourot ; prâeface d'Olivier Poivre d'Arvor. "In March 1778, the Scottish privateer John Paul Jones landed at Brest. He is the first officer of the young American navy to whom Louis XVI entrusts a ship. France has just joined the United States in fighting against the British Crown. The freedom of the young American nation gets ready on the docks of Penfeld ..."--Provided by the publisher. [2016] • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.49"1778/1781"(42:44)

Black dance in London, 1730-1850 : innovation, tradition and resistance /Rodreguez King-Dorset "The survival of African cultural traditions in the New World has long been a subject of academic study and controversy, particularly traditions of dance, music, and song. Yet the dance culture of blacks in London, where a growing black community carried on the newly creolized dance traditions of their Caribbean ancestors, has been largely neglected. This study begins by examining the importance of dance in African culture and analyzing how African dance took root in the Caribbean, even as slaves learned and adapted European dance forms. It then looks at how these dance traditions were transplanted and transformed once again, this time in mid-eighteenth century London. Finally it analyzes how the London black community used the quadrille and other dances to establish a unified self-identity, to reinforce their group dynamic, and to critique the oppressive white society in which they found themselves."--Provided by publisher 2008 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 793.3 19421

Suppressing piracy in the early eighteenth century : pirates, merchants and British imperial authority in the Atlantic and Indian oceans /David Wilson. "This book charts the surge and decline in piracy in the early eighteenth century (the so-called 'Golden Age' of piracy), exploring the ways in which pirates encountered, obstructed, and antagonised the diverse participants of the British empire in the Caribbean, North America, Africa, and the Indian Ocean. The book's primary focus is on how anti-piracy campaigns were constructed as a result of the negotiations, conflicts, and individual undertakings of different imperial actors operating in the commercial and imperial hub of London; maritime communities throughout the British Atlantic; trading outposts in West Africa and India; and marginal and contested zones such as the Bahamas,Madagascar, and the Bay Islands. It argues that Britain and its empire was not a strong centralised imperial state; that the British imperial administration and the Royal Navy did not have the resources to mount a state-led, empire-wide war against piracy following the sharp increase in piratical attacks after 1716; and that it was only through manifold activities taking place in different colonial centres with varied colonial arrangements, economic strengths, and access to resources for maritime defence - which was often shaped by competing and contradictory interests - that Atlantic piracy was gradually discouraged, although not eradicated, by the mid-1720s."--Provided by the publisher. 2021. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 909.0971241

Negotiating abolition : the antislavery project in the British Strait Settlements, 1786-1843 /by Shawna R. Herzog. "Negotiating Abolition: The Antislavery Project in the British Straits Settlements, 1786-1843 explores how sex and gender complicated the enforcement of colonial anti-slavery policies in the region, the challenges local officials faced in identifying slave populations, and how European reclassification of slave labor to systems of indenture or 'free' labor created a new illicit trade for women and girls to the Straits Settlements of Southeast Asia. Through a history of early-19th century slavery and abolition in this often overlooked region in British imperial history, Herzog bridges a historiographical gap between colonial and modern slave systems. She discusses the dynamic intersectionality between perceptions of race, class, gender, and civilization within the Straits and how this informed behavior and policy regarding slavery, abolition, and prostitution within the settlement. This book provides an important new perspective for scholars of slavery interested in Southeast Asia, British imperialism in the Indian Ocean world and Asia, the East India Company in the Straits, and gender and sexuality in the context of empire."--Provided by the publisher. 2021. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 326/.809033

Sino-French trade at Canton, 1698-1842 / Susan E. Schopp. "Sino-French Trade at Canton, 1698-1842 presents a rare and lively view of the French experience at Canton, and calls for a reappraisal of France's role in that trade. France was one of the two most important Western powers in the eighteenth century, and was home to one of the three major European East India companies. Yet the nation is woefully underrepresented in Canton trade scholarship. Susan E. Schopp rescues the French from the sidelines, showing that they exerted a presence that, though closely watched by their rivals, is today largely unrecognized. Their contributions were diverse, ranging from finding new sea routes to inspiring the renovation of hong faðcades. Consequently, to ignore the French, or to dismiss them as simply "also-rans," results in a skewed perception of the Canton system. Schopp also demonstrates that while the most distinctive aspect of the French model of company trade was the dominant role of the state -- indeed, the French East India Company has been memorably described as a "Versailles of trade" -- this did not rule out a place for legitimate, and sometimes surprising, participation by the private sector. On the contrary: France's commercial relations with China were inaugurated by private traders, and the popularity of the Canton trade spurred the eventual demise of the company model. Backed up by extensive archival work, Schopp's work demonstrates a remarkable understanding of the Sino-European trade, and her book reveals an unparalleled passion for the role of seamanship in history."--Provided by the publisher. [2020] • BOOK • 1 copy available. 382.094405109033

British traders in the East Indies, 1770-1820 : 'at home in the Eastern Seas' /W. G. Miller. "This book provides an in-depth analysis of the British private traders who engaged in the intra-Asian trade, known to contemporaries as the "country trade", between 1770 and 1820, providing much detail on who the traders were, how they conducted their operations, and how they interacted with indigenous societies in a complex and very volatile region. It examines their relations with East India Company, and their moves beyond the Company's orbit to open up independently new spheres of British commercial, political, and imperial influence. It discusses their social and political interaction with Malays, their good understanding of local societies, their use of the Malay language, their adoption of local practices and procedures, and their gathering of many forms of useful knowledge, all of which underpinned the growth in commercial activity and made the traders indispensable to East India Company officials. It explores their often fractious rivalry with the Dutch, and analyses the decline of the country trade following the establishment of Singapore in 1819. Throughout, the book provides many case studies of individual traders."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 382.0941

Edmund Burke and the British Empire in the West Indies : wealth, power, and slavery /P.J. Marshall. "Edmund Burke was both a political thinker of the utmost importance and an active participant in the day-to-day business of politics. It is the latter role that is the concern of this book, showing Burke engaging with issues concerning the West Indies, which featured so largely in British concerns in the later eighteenth century. Initially, Burke saw the islands as a means by which his close connections might make their fortunes, later he was concerned with them as a great asset to be managed in the national interest, and, finally, he became a participant in debates about the slave trade. This volume adds a new dimension to assessments of Burke's views on empire, hitherto largely confined to Ireland, India, and America, and explores the complexities of his response to slavery. The system outraged his abundantly attested concern for the suffering caused by abuses of British power overseas, but one which he also recognised to be fundamental for sustaining the wealth generated by the West Indies, which he deemed essential to Britain's national power. He therefore sought compromises in the gradual reform of the system rather than immediate abolition of the trade or emancipation of the slaves."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 325.3209033

'I am determined to live or die on board my ship.' : the life of Admiral John Inglis : an American in the Georgian Navy /Jim Tildesley. "The life of John Inglis was so epic, it could have been a work of fiction. he was born in Philadelphia, the son of a slave trading merchant. As an underage Lieutenant commanding a schooner hunting smugglers before the Boston Tea Party, he also dined with George Washington before the War of Independence. having settled in Scotland and inheriting his uncle's Edinburgh estate, he returned to the Navy. Shipwrecked in Norway, he became embroiled in a secret service attempt to persuade Dutch naval commanders to desert. His vessel was invovle din the Nore Mutiny and astoundingly, he was held prisonder on his own ship. Honoured by the City of Edinburgh he returned to the navy for another year before giving up his command and being given the rank of Admiral in retirement. The naval career of John Inglis is not just an incredible story but one that enables a close view of life in the eighteenth-century navy. 'I am determined to live or die on board my ship' covers his action-packed naval career starting as a midshipman in command of the guns of a frigate in action against the French, and ending as the severely wounded captain of a warship in a closely fought victory against the Dutch."--Provided by the publisher. 2019. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 359.0092

Waterford's maritime world : the ledger of Walter Butler, 1750-1757 /John Mannion. "In October 1750 Walter Butler, a Waterford sea captain, purchased a ship in the port of Bordeaux and had it refitted there before loading it with wine, brandy and other French produce for his home port. Renamed the Catherine after his wife, the ship spent the winter in Waterford where Butler and his men prepared for a voyage to Newfoundland. She departed for the fishery in April 1751 with "passengers" (seasonal migrants) and salt provisions, returning home in the fall. Over the next six years the Catherine completed three more round trips to Newfoundland and voyages to London, Tenby, Dublin, Cork, Lisbon, Cadiz and Seville. The brig was captured off St Lucar by a French privateer in spring, 1757. Butler's account of the Catherine survives (Prize Papers, High Court of Admiralty). The ledger contains the most detailed description of a Waterford ship, shipmaster and crew for the eighteenth century. It is a record of everyday economic exchanges with merchants, traders, artisans and labourers in Waterford city and in the ports and fishing harbours visited by the Catherine overseas, in England, Wales, France, Iberia and in faraway Newfoundland."--Provided by the publisher. [2022] • BOOK • 1 copy available. 387.20941915

An account of the islands of Orkney Wallace, James 1700 • RARE-BOOK • 1 copy available. 094:914.112

Science, utility and maritime power : Samuel Bentham in Russia, 1779-91 /Roger Morriss. "During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Samuel Bentham influenced both the technology and the administrative ideas employed in the management of the British navy. His influence stemmed from his passion for science, from his desire to achieve improvements based on a belief in the principle of Utility, and from experience gained over eleven years in Russia, a large part in the service of Catherine the Great and Prince Potemkin. Having travelled extensively throughout the north and south of Russia, Poland and Siberia, he managed Potemkina (TM)s industries at Krichev, built fast river galleys, armed the Russian flotilla of small craft at Kherson and served with the flotilla that defeated the Turks in the Black Sea. His main ambition was to open river communication in Siberia and develop trade into the Pacific. However he returned to England and in 1796 became Inspector General of Naval Works, a post in which he fought for innovations in the technology and management of the British royal dockyards. Regarded then by the Navy Board as a dangerous maverick, this book reveals the experiences, creativity and thinking that made him a major figure in British naval development."--Provided by the publisher. [2015]. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 92BENTHAM

1759 : the year Britain became master of the world /Frank McLynn. "Although 1759 is not a date as well known in British history as 1215, 1588, or 1688, there is a strong case to be made that it is the most significant year since 1066. In 1759 - the fourth year of the Seven Years War - the British defeated the French in arduous campaigns on four continents and also achieved absolute mastery of the seas. Drawing on a mass of primary materials - from texts in the Vatican archives to oral histories of the North American Indians - Frank McLynn shows how the conflict between Brtiain and France triggered the first 'world war', raging from Europe to Africa; the Caribbean to the Pacific; the plains of the Ganges to the Great Lakes of North America. It also brought about the War of Independence, the acquisition by Britain of the Falkland Islands and, ultimately, the French Revolution."--Provided by the publisher. 2008 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.48"1759"

Buccaneers of the Caribbean : how piracy forged an empire /Jon Latimer. The book focuses on what the author calls buccaneers, or private men-of-war, operating in the Caribbean basin on behalf of English, French, and Dutch interests during the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries. The primary argument made is that these buccaneers were not purely pirates, but that they often operated with the approval (tacit or implied) of their countries of origin, and were instrumental in those countries gaining a foothold in the Caribbean. It begins with the example of the raid by Sir Francis Drake on Santo Domingo, Espanola (Hispaniola) in 1585, with support from Queen Elizabeth I. Amongst the other examples of buccaneers presented are Dutch admiral Piet Heyn, English sailors William Dampier and Sir Henry Morgan, and Frenchman Jean-David Nau, known as L'Ollonais. The book charts the role of the buccaneers in undermining the Spanish Empire in the Americas, through persistent attacks on vessels carrying wealth from the New World. Illustrations include portraits of Piet Heyn, Robert Rich (2nd Earl of Warwick), Vice-Admiral Sir Christopher Myngs, Sir Henry Morgan, Francis L'Ollonais, Henry Bennet (1st Earl of Arlington), George Monck (1st Duke of Albemarle), and William Dampier. Maps also depict the routes taken by Henry Morgan on Panama and Portobelo, as well as the Battles of Portobelo (1668) and Maracaibo (1669). 2009. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 341.362.1(729)

The politics of empire at the accession of George III : the East India Company and the crisis and transformation of Britain's imperial state /James M. Vaughn. "In this bold debut work, historian James M. Vaughn challenges the scholarly consensus that British India and the Second Empire were founded in 'a fit of absence of mind.' He instead argues that the origins of the Raj and the largest empire of the modern world were rooted in political conflicts and movements in Britain. It was British conservatives who shaped the Second Empire into one of conquest and dominion, emphasizing the extraction of resources and the subjugation of colonial populations. Drawing on a wide array of sources, Vaughn shows how the East India Company was transformed from a corporation into an imperial power in the service of British political forces opposed to the rising radicalism of the period. The Company's dominion in Bengal, where it raised territorial revenue and maintained a large army, was an autocratic bulwark of Britain's established order. A major work of political and imperial history, this volume offers an important new understanding of the era and its global ramifications."--Provided by the publisher. 2019 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 347.71EAST INDIA

The Kongolese Saint Anthony : Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian movement, 1684-1706 /John K. Thornton. "This book tells the story of the Christian religious movement led by Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita in the Kingdom of Kongo from 1704 until her death, by burning at the stake, in 1706. Beatriz, a young woman, claimed to be possessed by St Anthony, argued that Jesus was a Kongolese, and criticized Italian Capuchin missionaries in her country for not supporting black saints. The movement was largely a peace movement, with a following among the common people, attempting to stop the devastating cycle of civil wars between contenders for the Kongolese throne. Thornton supplies background information on the Kingdom, the development of Catholicism in Kongo since 1491, the nature and role of local warfare in the Atlantic slave trade, and contemporary everyday life, as well as sketching the lives of some local personalities."--Provided by the publisher. 2009. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 967.51/01/092

Children of uncertain fortune : mixed-race Jamaicans in Britain and the Atlantic family, 1733-1833 /Daniel Livesay. "By tracing the largely forgotten eighteenth-century migration of elite mixed-race individuals from Jamaica to Great Britain, Children of Uncertain Fortune reinterprets the evolution of British racial ideologies as a matter of negotiating family membership. Using wills, legal petitions, family correspondences, and inheritance lawsuits, Daniel Livesay is the first scholar to follow the hundreds of children born to white planters and Caribbean women of color who crossed the ocean for educational opportunities, professional apprenticeships, marriage prospects, or refuge from colonial prejudices. The presence of these elite children of color in Britain pushed popular opinion in the British Atlantic world toward narrower conceptions of race and kinship. Members of Parliament, colonial assemblymen, merchant kings, and cultural arbiters - the very people who decided Britain's colonial policies, debated abolition, passed marital laws, and arbitrated inheritance disputes - rubbed shoulders with these mixed-race Caribbean migrants in parlors and sitting rooms. Upper-class Britons also resented colonial transplants and coveted their inheritances; family intimacy gave way to racial exclusion. By the early nineteenth century, relatives had become strangers."--Provided by the publisher. [2018] • BOOK • 1 copy available. 305.23089/0596009041

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