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By 1808, both Britain and the United States had passed laws outlawing the transatlantic slave trade. Yet the trade covertly carried on. In the summer of 1813, in what is now Liberia, a compound of slave pens was bursting with sick and anguished captives, guarded by other African slaves. As a British patrol swooped down on the illicit barracoon, the slavers burned the premises to the ground, hoping to destroy evidence.
This story can be told because of an exceptional trove of court documents that provides unparalleled insight into one small link in the great, horrific chain of slavery. Emma Christopher follows a trail of evidence across four continents to examine the lives of this barracoon's owners, their workers, and their tragic human merchandise. She reveals how an American, Charles Mason, escaped justice, while British subjects Robert Bostock and John McQueen were arrested. In court five African men - Tamba, Tom Ball, Yarra, Noah, and Sessay - courageously testified against their former owners/captors. They, and 233 other liberated men, women, and children, were relocated to Freetown, Sierra Leone. There they endured harsh lives of "freedom", while the punishment of Bostock and McQueen was fleeting.
From the fragmented facts of these lives, Christopher sheds fascinating light on the early development of the nations of Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Australia (where Bostock and McQueen were banished) and the role of former slaves in combatting the illegal trade.
Contents
List of Characters
Prologue
Introduction
Part 1: Journeys to the Slave Factory
1 Son of a Liverpool Slave Dealer
2 A Kissi Child Caught in the Slave Trade
3 The Banana Islands to Gallinas
4 Making Deals with Siaka, Selling to the DeWolfs
5 A Cargo of Slaves for Havana
Part 2: Burned to the Ground
6 A New Slave Factory at the St. Paul River
7 In the Barracoon
8 The Slave Ship FÉnix and Setting the Factory Alight
9 Leaving, Never to Return
Part 3: Different Types of Liberty
10 Arriving in Freetown
11 The Court Case
12 Becoming Soldiers, Cabin Boys, and Wives
13 Leaving Africa
14 A Village of Their Own
15 A Murder, and an Appeal to the Prince Regent
16 Experiments in Civilization and Liberty
17 Prisoners in New South Wales
18 Christianity at Hogbrook
19 The End of Their Punishment
20 A Model Village
21 The Appeal
22 Helping to Found Liberia
23 Van Diemen's Land
24 Liberty in Black and White
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
