[ 3 June 1833 ] William Gladstone was to become Liberal prime minister four times between 1868 and 1894. He is often acclaimed as the most progressive of Britain’s Victorian prime ministers, extending voting rights to the majority of working men (though rejecting calls for extending the franchise to women) and according to one of…
[ 4 August 1760 ] On 4 August 1760, at the very bottom of a long paragraph listing the latest news of ship movements and arrivals, the Aberdeen Press and Journal, mentioned briefly that ‘the New Eagle of Liverpool, from Africa bound to Jamaica, having had seventeen weeks passage, is arrived at Barbados and buried half her slaves.’1 …
30 November 1567 Cacheu was a Portuguese trading and administrative town at the mouth of what was then called the Santo-Domingo River on the West African coast. It was situated a short distance south of Cape Roxo in what is today Guinea-Bissau. On the evening of 29 November 1567, three heavily armed British ships sailed…
12 March 1563 The 12 March 1563 is not a date which receives attention in most history books, which routinely laud Queen Elizabeth’s celebrated sea dogs, not least Sir John Hawkins, who’s name graces public buildings, streets and at least one town square in memory of his daring courage which helped defeat the Spanish Armada…
1 September 1772 Exactly one year after the Scots Magazine reported shocking revelations about mass starvation in Bengal caused by the unprecedented rapacity of the East India Company, the magazine published an article by American abolitionist Anthony Benezet entitled ‘The Rise and Progress of the Slave Trade, its Nature and its Lamentable Effects.’ It confirmed what many…
28 October 1762 The London registered Phoenix was carrying 332 slaves crammed into its hold from Africa towards Maryland on the United States’ mid-Atlantic coastline. Since 20 October, she had been battling heavy seas but had sustained severe damage to the hull and rigging and was continuing to gain water despite the crew and the captive Africans…
11 December 1752 Today, John Newton is revered as the author of ‘Amazing Grace’ and other well known Christian hymns, but as a young man he earned an enviable income for several years as a captain of a slave ship. Even after his realisation that God had ‘chosen’ him, Newton remained committed to the slaving…
11 October 1736 In 1735, falling sugar prices combined with a prolonged drought threatened many of Antigua’s British plantation owners with significant financial losses. Their response was to cut rations for their slaves, to raise daily work quotas and to severely flog those failing to meet them. This may explain why in November a group…
27 December 1831 On 27 December 1831, a widespread slave strike occurred in Jamaica, then an integral part of the British Empire. A severe drought during the summer had brought increased hardship for the slave population, which was compounded by the ruthlessness of the plantation owners, who insisted on their legal right to flog both…
25 December 1801 About 120 slaves on two Tobago plantations, Bacolet and Belvedere, planned to launch a surprise uprising on Christmas Day evening 1801. They would set fires among the sugar cane, kill those whites who came to extinguish them and then seize any remaining arms they found in the planters’ houses. A false attack…
