CAPTAIN CROW, THE LAST SLAVER OUT OF
LIVERPOOL
The English slave trade was abolished by Act of Parliament on May 1,
1807. For many years Liverpool had been a great center for the African
slave trade and when the end seemed in sight, Henry Clarke, the owner of
the ship _Kitty’s Amelia_, of three hundred tons burden and mounting
eighteen guns, cleared her for a last voyage just previous to the
passing of the Abolition Bill. Her master was Capt. Hugh Crow, a
Manxman, who had been in the Guinea trade for sixteen years and who, in
after years, wrote that it had been his opinion “that the traffic in
negroes was permitted by that Providence that rules over all, as a
necessary evil, and that it ought not to have been done away with to
humour the folly or the fancy of a set of people who knew little or
nothing about the subject.” He believed that the pretended
philanthropists, through the abolition of slavery, had become indirectly
responsible for the death of thousands of slaves, because they had
caused the trade to be transferred to the ships of other nations where
cruelty and a disregard for human life was shown “to which Englishmen
could never bring themselves to resort.”
The _Kitty’s Amelia_ did not actually sail for the African coast until
July 27th, but her technical clearance before May 1st protected her
while outfitting was being completed and insurance effected with the
underwriters at fifteen guineas per cent which was five per cent lower
than the usual premium. Her crew was composed of nearly sixty men and
while making a course down St. George’s Channel, four of the best of the
crew, in spite of their protections, were impressed by H.M. frigate
_Princess Charlotte_. The ship had been commissioned as a letter of
marque and during the voyage several vessels were chased and boarded but
no prizes were taken.
She arrived at Bonny after a passage of about seven weeks and was
immediately boarded by King Holiday who anxiously inquired if it was
true that the _Kitty’s Amelia_ was to be the last ship that would come
to Bonny for negroes. Captain Crow in his memoirs[31] gives a curious
account of what was said at that long palaver. The king’s sentiments on
abolition were expressed as follows:
-----
Footnote 31:
_Memoirs of the late Captain H. Crow of Liverpool, ... with
descriptive sketches of the Western Coast of Africa_, London, 1830.
-----
“Crow,” he remarked, “you and me sabby each other long time, and me know
you tell me true mouth (speak truth); for all captains come to river
tell me you King and you big mans stop we trade, and s’pose dat true,
what we do? For you sabby me have too much wife, it be we country fash,
and have too much child, and some may turn big rogue man, all same time
we see some bad white man for some you ship, and we hear too much white
man grow big rogue for you country. But God make you sabby book and make
big ship—den you sen you bad people much far for other country, and we
hear you hang much people, and too much man go dead for you warm (war).
But God make we black and we no sabby book, and we no havy head for make
ship for sen we bad mans for more country, and we law is, s’pose some of
we child go bad and we no can sell ’em, we father must kill dem own
child; and s’pose trade be done we force kill too much child same way.
But we tink trade no stop, for all we Ju-Ju-man (the priests) tell we
so, for dem say you country no can niber pass God A’mighty.”
And Crow thought that the king’s remarks were not lacking in sense and
shrewdness.
[Illustration:
VIEW OF THE TOWN AND HARBOR OF LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND
From a colored aquatint by W. J. Bennett, engraved in 1811, in the
Macpherson Collection
]
There were ten or twelve vessels at Bonny waiting for slaves and Captain
Crow was obliged to lie there a long time for his turn. During this
period of waiting malignant fever and dysentery broke out among the
crew. It was supposed that the sickness originated in some goods aboard
returned on the ship from a former voyage when the ship was sickly. The
rotten goods were thrown overboard, but the sickness delayed the
slaving. Terrible storms came up as the ship lay at her anchorage and
she dragged her anchors and narrowly escaped going ashore.
In time the complement of slaves was made up and the ship sailed from
Bonny for the last time with “as fine a cargo of blacks, as ever had
been taken from Africa”; but disease lingered aboard and baffled the
skill of the two doctors and as both whites and blacks were dying at an
alarming rate, Captain Crow put in to the island of St. Thomas, in the
gulf of Guinea, to recruit. Before long the sick seemed to have
recovered and the ship resumed her voyage, but they had not been long at
sea before the sickness broke out afresh and attacked both whites and
blacks. The chief mate died and Captain Crow began to fear a great
disaster, for if anything happened to him there would be no one left on
board capable of navigating the ship. To add to the terror of the
situation, about that time, fire broke out in the hold. The captain
relates:
“One afternoon, when we were ten or twelve hundred miles from any land,
and were sailing at the rate of seven or eight knots, the alarm was
given that the ship was on fire in the afterhold. I was in the cabin at
the time and springing upon deck, the first persons that I saw were two
young men with their flannel shirts blazing on their backs; at the same
time I perceived a dense cloud of smoke issuing from below, and looking
round me I found the people in the act of cutting away the stern and
quarter boats that they might abandon the vessel. At this critical
juncture I had the presence of mind to exclaim in an animating tone, ‘Is
it possible, my lads, that you can desert me at a moment when it is your
bounden duty, as men, to assist me.’ And observing them to hesitate, I
added, ‘Follow me, my brave fellows, and we shall soon save the ship.’
These few words had the desired effect, for they immediately rallied and
came forward to assist me. To show them a proper example I was the first
man to venture below, for I thought of the poor blacks entrusted to my
care and who could not be saved in the boats, and I was determined,
rather than desert them, to extinguish the fire or perish in the
attempt.
“When we got below we found the fire blazing with great fury on the
starboard side, and as it was known to the crew that there were
forty-five barrels of gunpowder in the magazine, within about three feet
only of the fire, it required every possible encouragement on my part to
lead them on to endeavour to extinguish the rapidly increasing flames.
When I first saw the extent of the conflagration, and thought of its
proximity to the powder, a thrill of despair ran through my whole frame;
but by a strong mental effort I suppressed my disheartening feelings,
and only thought of active exertion, unconnected with the thought of
imminent danger. We paused for a moment, struggling, as it were, to
determine how to proceed. Very fortunately for us our spare sails were
stowed close at hand. These we dragged out and by extraordinary activity
we succeeded in throwing them over the flames which they so far checked
that we gained time to obtain a good supply of water down the hatchway
and in the course of ten or fifteen minutes, by favour of Almighty God,
we extinguished the flames.... The accident, I found, was occasioned by
the ignorance and carelessness of the two young men whose clothes I had
seen burning on their backs. Through the want of regular officers, they
had been entrusted to draw off some rum from the store cask and not
knowing the danger to which they exposed themselves and the ship, had
taken down a lighted candle, a spark from which had ignited the
spirit.”...
“It may not be uninteresting to learn with what kind of provisions the
negroes were supplied. We frequently bought from the natives
considerable quantities of dried shrimps to make broth; and a very
excellent dish they made, when mixed with flour and palm oil and
seasoned with pepper and salt. Both whites and blacks were fond of this
mess. In addition to yams we gave them for a change, fine shelled beans
and rice cooked together, and this was served up to each individual with
a plentiful proportion of the soup. On other days their soup was mixed
with peeled yams, cut up thin and boiled, with a proportion of pounded
biscuit. For the sick we provided strong soups and middle messes,
prepared from mutton, goats’ flesh, fowls, etc., to which were added
sago and lilipees, the whole mixed with port wine and sugar. I am thus
particular in describing the ingredients which composed the food of the
blacks, to show that no attention to their health was spared in this
respect. Their personal comfort was also carefully studied. On their
coming on deck, about eight o’clock in the morning, water was provided
to wash their hands and faces, a mixture of lime juice to cleanse their
mouths, towels to wipe with and chew sticks to clean their teeth. These
were generally pieces of young branches of the common lime or of the
citron of sweet lime tree, the skin of which is smooth, green and
pleasantly aromatic. They are used about the thickness of a quill and
the end being chewed, the white, fine fibre of the wood soon forms a
brush with which the teeth may be effectually cleaned by rubbing them up
and down. These sticks impart an agreeable flavor to the mouth and are
sold in little bundles, for a mere trifle, in the public markets of the
West Indies. A draw of brandy bitters was given to each of the men and
clean spoons being served out, they breakfasted about nine o’clock.
About eleven, if the day were fine, they washed their bodies all over,
and after wiping themselves dry, were allowed to use palm oil, their
favorite cosmetic. Pipes and tobacco were then supplied to the men and
beads and other articles were distributed among the women to amuse them,
after which they were permitted to dance and run about on deck to keep
them in good spirits. A middle mess of bread and cocoa-nuts was given
them about mid-day. The third meal was served out about three o’clock
and after everything was cleaned out and arranged below, they were
generally sent down about four or five o’clock in the evening. I always
took great pains to promote the health and comfort of all on board, by
proper diet, regularity, exercise, and cleanliness, for I considered
that on keeping the ship clean and orderly, which was always my hobby,
the success of our voyage mainly depended.”
Such ideal and humane conditions on board a slaver were by no means
general as will be discovered elsewhere in the present volume.
The sickness on board the _Kitty’s Amelia_ abated as they neared the
West Indies, but by the time she arrived at Kingston, after a passage of
eight weeks from St. Thomas, the two doctors had died and the deaths on
the voyage amounted to eighty, of which thirty were whites. Captain Crow
found that the mortality on board his ship was only half that on other
ships in the harbor, where he found sixteen slavers at anchor, some of
which had been there for several months, their cargoes unsold, due to a
glutting of the market, and slaves and crews were dying daily. His
cargo, however, being in better condition than the others, he was able
to sell at a profit and return to Liverpool where he retired with a
comfortable fortune.
Captain Crow lost his right eye when very young and was known, far and
wide, as “Mind your eye Crow.” His first voyage to the Guinea Coast was
in the Liverpool slave ship _Prince_, sailing in 1790. His brother,
William Crow, was also employed in the same trade and was chief mate of
the _Othello_ when she caught fire one night at Bonny and blew up,
causing the death of several whites and about 120 blacks, among them a
brother of King Pepple.
In October, 1796, he sailed from Liverpool as mate on the slaver
_James_, and after taking in a cargo of negroes at Bonny, she weighed
anchor and had made barely five leagues when she grounded at half-ebb on
a bank and with six feet of water in her hold was carried over the tail
of the bank by the tide and came to anchor in deep water. The captain
went off in a boat to get assistance from Bonny, leaving Crow in charge
of the ship with four hundred blacks aboard. The pumps were kept going
and Crow went down into the hold with the carpenter, found the leak, and
crammed it with pieces of beef. Eventually the ship was stranded in
Bonny Creek and the slaves put aboard other vessels.
A night or two after, a horde of negroes came aboard and began to
plunder the ship. Crow, who had been left to guard the vessel, had
stowed his own belongings on the booms and supplied himself with plenty
of six-pound shot, with which he defended himself stoutly against all
attempts to dislodge him until King Pepple came alongside and commanded
the people to withdraw, and rescued Crow, who afterwards took passage to
Kingston and thence reached Liverpool.