Slave Captain
Slave Captain: The Career of James Irving in the Liverpool Slave Trade
Edited with an Introduction by Suzanne Schwarz
Copyright Date: 2008
Edition: NED - New edition, 2
Published by: Liverpool University Press
Pages: 212
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt5vjgk7
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Slave Captain
Book Description:

As few accounts written by slave ship captains are known to have survived, the personal papers of James Irving are of tremendous interest and academic significance. Irving built a successful career in the slave trade of eighteenth-century Liverpool, first as a ship’s surgeon and then as a captain. Remarkably he was himself enslaved when his ship was wrecked off the coast of Morocco and he was captured by people described as ‘wild Arabs’ and ‘savages’. This edition of forty letters and his journal reveals the reaction of the slaver to the experience of slavery, as well as throwing light on the complex and, to modern eyes, repugnant features of the transatlantic slave trade. The result is both a compelling narrative and a valuable reference text. This thoroughly revised edition of Suzanne Schwarz’s best-selling book includes recently discovered archive material.

eISBN: 978-1-84631-407-0
Subjects: Sociology
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  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. i-vi)
  2. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. vii-vii)
  3. List of Illustrations, Maps and Tables
    List of Illustrations, Maps and Tables (pp. viii-viii)
  4. Preface to the Second Edition
    Preface to the Second Edition (pp. ix-xii)
  5. The Documents and Editorial Conventions
    The Documents and Editorial Conventions (pp. xiii-xiv)
  6. List of Abbreviations
    List of Abbreviations (pp. xv-xvi)
  7. Part One: James Irving’s Career
    • 1 Introduction
      1 Introduction (pp. 3-6)

      Historical interpretations of Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade have, until recently, placed a disproportionate emphasis on abolitionist campaigning activity and achievements in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.¹ This trend can be traced back to Thomas Clarkson’s influentialHistory of the Rise, Progress, and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade by the British Parliamentpublished in 1808, the year after the passage of the bill to abolish the slave trade. The attention given to the work of humanitarian campaigners has tended to obscure Britain’s position as the most prolific and efficient slave-trading nation in the...

    • 2 Early Career in the Liverpool Slave Trade
      2 Early Career in the Liverpool Slave Trade (pp. 7-19)

      James Irving, the son of an innkeeper from the Scottish border town of Langholm, built his career on the prodigious slave trade of late eighteenth-century Liverpool.¹ As a ship’s surgeon and then as a captain, he participated in the movement of slaves from West Africa to the Americas. This transatlantic trade, in which Portugal and France were Britain’s chief competitors, accounted for the forced migration of over six million Africans in the eighteenth century alone.² Of these men, women and children, almost two and a half million individuals, accounting for two-fifths of the total, were carried in British vessels.³ This...

    • 3 Irving’s Voyages in the Transatlantic Slave Trade
      3 Irving’s Voyages in the Transatlantic Slave Trade (pp. 20-38)

      The letters from each voyage undertaken by Irving highlight the familiar outline of the transatlantic slave trade.¹ Common to each voyage was the purchase of slaves on the coast of West Africa, their re-sale in the Americas and the return journey to Liverpool with bills of exchange to be drawn against a British merchant house and/or a cargo from Africa and the Caribbean.² Although these are well-studied characteristics of the slave trade, Irving’s letters shed some light on the complexities of the trade and the variable elements within this deceptively simple pattern.

      The African destinations mentioned by Irving in his...

    • 4 Shipwreck and Enslavement
      4 Shipwreck and Enslavement (pp. 39-64)

      The maiden voyage of theAnna, Irving’s first captaincy, began propitiously. As he sailed from Liverpool on 3 May 1789, he wrote to his wife Mary informing her of the good progress made by the ship. He commented on the ‘fine promising Wind’ which was ‘so exceeding favourable the Vessel runs out very fast’. The tone of the letter is calm and reassuring and was intended no doubt to relieve the anxieties that his wife, two months pregnant at the time, felt about the voyage. He urged her not to ‘fret and distress yourself without cause’, but to trust in...

    • 5 Freedom and Return to England
      5 Freedom and Return to England (pp. 65-69)

      The removal of the sentries guarding their lodgings in Mogador at the end of July 1790 finally signalled their freedom. Irving described how they were all summoned before the Governor of Mogador and ‘delivered up to the Vice Consul as British subjects, to his disposal’. The exact reasons that led Mawlay al-Yazid to free the crew of theAnnaafter 14 months in captivity are not clear, but the persistence of diplomatic endeavour undoubtedly played a part. Hutchison, who had played such a central role in negotiations for their release, arranged a celebration. As Irving pointed out in his journal...

    • 6 Conclusion
      6 Conclusion (pp. 70-80)

      James Irving’s career in Liverpool in the late eighteenth century developed against the backdrop of the debate on the morality and sustainability of the slave trade. Although Irving stated in a letter of December 1786 that he was ‘nearly Wearied of this Unnatural Accursed trade’ and was considering ‘adopting some other mode of Life’, this still does not give a clear indication of how he viewed the slaves or the institution of slavery. At first sight, Irving’s comment might be interpreted as a rejection or condemnation of the trade in slaves. After all, Olaudah Equiano, a former slave, used the...

  8. Part Two: James Irving’s Correspondence, 1786–1791
    Part Two: James Irving’s Correspondence, 1786–1791 (pp. 81-124)

    My Dear Lassy

    I have just found time to withdraw from the Bustle a few minutes to address myself to you. The wind is at present rather contrary which oblidges us to keep the Pilot a little longer, otherwise I should have said no more, but everything in Nature has its use so has the foul wind, in giving me this sweet opportunity, to tell you that never till now did I know your Worth. Oh! for a volley of these endearing embraces, that I have so often received, I could at this moment almost smother you with caresses. I...

  9. Part Three: Journal of James Irving’s Shipwreck and Enslavement, May 1789–October 1790
    • A Narrative Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Ann Captain Irving
      A Narrative Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Ann Captain Irving (pp. 125-148)

      Which was wrecked on the Coast of Barbary, on the 26thof May 1789, the Crew sold for Slaves; continued in that state untill January 1790, were detained at Mogodore,¹ to August 1st arrived at Dartmouth,² on the 26 of October 1790.

      /1/ 1789 May 3rdat 4 A.M. weighed and sailed from Liverpool, with a moderate favourable brieze³ which ran us as far as Bardsey Isle, in St. George’s Channel, when it fell calm, and soon after sprung up from the south west, blowing strong with thick rainey weather. In consequence of which, we ran for St. Studwal’s Road,...

    • A ‘Short Account’ by James Irving II, June–October 1789
      A ‘Short Account’ by James Irving II, June–October 1789 (pp. 149-152)
      Jas. Irving Junr.

      [This ‘short account’ by James Irving II covers the period from June to October 1789. The handwriting is that of Captain James Irving.]

      /90/ A very short account of what happened to me after the seperation on the 16thof June 1789.127

      It was already observed that as soon as we got to Muly Abdrauchman’s,128I and three others of the people were marched into the country. So it is sufficiant to say we were conducted to a place belonging to Muly Abdrauchman, about 5 miles from Gulimeme, where we were employed digging the ground (as it was too hard...

  10. Notes
    Notes (pp. 153-194)
  11. Bibliography
    Bibliography (pp. 195-204)
  12. Index
    Index (pp. 205-212)
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