The West Indies Adventure of a British Navy Gunner, Late 18th Century
The University of Miami Libraries hosts a digital collection created from the diary and drawings of an “eleventh gunner,” Aaron Thomas (1762–1799), on a Royal Navy ship in the West Indies in the last years of his life. The creation of this online primary source was the work of Elizabeth H. Locke, a graduate student of library and information science in the late 1990s. It consists of the transcription of 240 pages from Thomas’s nearly 400-page diary, which stretches from June 1798 to October 1799. The collection also offers nine images, including pages showing the journalist’s handwriting, sketches, a watercolor map, and a black-and-white map. Locke has preserved the original vocabulary and orthography of the diary, and she provides a glossary to help users understand some of this challenging maritime language, some Portuguese terminology, and names of people from the period. She has also excerpted passages, highlight compelling themes, such as religion, slavery, corporal punishment, disease, alcohol consumption, morals, prize-taking, social hierarchy, and reflections on Dutch colonialism in Surinam. The web presentation also includes a biography, bibliography, and selected, recommended links.
To elaborate, the “Excerpts” section offers eight passages relating to slavery, and the details will be of interest to historians of that human travesty and to teachers of seminars about race and colonialism. One excerpt quotes a runaway slave named Robin:
The Negro was a youth of about 17. said his father and mother were Salt Water Negros, which mens people who crossed the Sea, in coming from Africa. I asked him is reasons for runing away. Sir says he, tell me one thing, will you runaway from good. –My owner only gave four pints of India Corn a week, he does not import provisions, therefore he cannot give us so much to eat, as those great Gentleman that do, as he must pay a higher price for it. –Bad usage Sir, made me run away, as some Gentleman gave their Negros 9 pints of Corn a week, but my owner only gives his Negros 4 pints a week. –my name is Robin, I belong to Mr Henry Dickson of Indian Castle in Nevis, Last Sunday being Negroes Holyday, I went aboard the Ship to sell Sweetmeate, And finding she was going away a sudden resolution came into my head to get off, as it is better to be free, then to be a Slave; So while they were geting the Ship under weigh, yesterday morning; I hid myself in the Hold, and this evening being very hungry I came on Deck, but I did not think the Ship was to Anchor again, untill she got to England. but they stoped here & I am taken &c.” (p. 54)
First person slave accounts are rare, and here we have a quoted narrative, speaking about bad treatment, hunger, and a desire to be free as serious motivations for stowing away on the British ship. This could be a seminar point, to consider the value of quotes and the extent to which they might be reliable sources for history. Here, the message seems very human and plausible.
The website for this small digital colelction does not offer a search interface, possibly owing to the more limited technological expertise of the period in which it was made, although the site did receive some attention in 2015. That limitation aside, this is a valuable resource for those interested, especially, in British colonialism in the Caribbean, but it also offers some information relating to the Portuguese and Dutch presence in the region, and Locke’s work helps us to locate thematic material of broad relevance.
Stephanie Wood