Captain Canot: Or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver (Cambridge Library Collection - Slavery and Abolition)
Cambridge University Press, 6/30/2015
EAN 9781108083409, ISBN10: 1108083404
Paperback, 488 pages, 21.6 x 14 x 2.8 cm
Language: English
The career of the Franco-Italian slave trader Theodore Canot (1804–60) was long and eventful. This intimate and sometimes graphic insight into the slave trade, first published in 1854, was edited by the American historian and author Brantz Mayer (1809–79), who compiled it in close collaboration with Canot. Brantz considered his subject to be a man of unquestionable integrity whose story needed to be heard. Beginning with Canot's introduction to seafaring, the book is enriched by vivid anecdotes and occasional illustrations. From an encounter with Lord Byron to shocking descriptions of massacres, the narrative describes multiple aspects of the slave trade: purchasing slaves; storing human cargo; the suppression of slave revolts; the establishment of the slave trade in new regions; and the legal, financial and practical requirements of running a slave ship. A counterpoint to accounts by slaves themselves, this work reflects the attitudes of its time.
1. My parentage and education
2. My uncle tells my adventure
3. I design going to South America
4. Bury my body in the sand to escape the insects
5. Life on a sand key
6. I am sent from the key
7. Reflections on my conduct and character
8. I take possession of my new quarters
9. Pains and dreariness of the 'wet season'
10. Mode of purchasing slaves at factories
11. An epoch in my life in 1827
12. How a cargo of slaves is landed in Cuba
13. I become intimate with 'country princes' and receive their presents
14. Joseph, my partner, has to fly from Africa
15. I study the institution of slavery in Africa
16. Caravan announced
17. I set forth on my journey to Timbo
18. A ride on horseback
19. A night bivouac in the forest
20. Spread of Mahometanism in the interior of Africa
21. We approach Tamisso
22. Improved character of the country and population as we advance to the interior
23. Our caravan proceeds towards Timbo
24. Site of Timbo and the surrounding country
25. My home journey
26. Arrival of a French slaver
27. Ormond communicates with the Spaniard
28. Capt. Escudero of the Esperanza dies
29. Off to sea
30. I am sent on board the corvette
31. I drift away in a boat with my servant
32. My greeting in Kambia
33. A visit to the Matacan river in quest of slaves
34. What became of the Esperanza's officers and crew
35. I escape capture
36. A 'white squall'
37. A long holiday
38. Our captain longs for calomel, and how I get it from a Scotchman
39. My returns from the voyage $12,000, and how I apply them
40. All Africans believe in divinities, except the Bagers
41. My voyage home in the Estrella
42. Smallpox and a necessary murder
43. The Aguila de Oro, a Chesapeake clipper
44. I am sent to France in the frigate Flora
45. Madame Sorret and my new quarters
46. New lodgers in our quarters
47. Monsieur Germaine, the forger
48. Plan of escape
49. Condition of the sentinel when he was found
50. I go to Portugal
51. I reach Goree, and hasten to Sierra Leone
52. Anecdotes of Blanco
53. I visit Liberia
54. My establishment at New Sestros, and how I created the slave trade in that region
55. No river at New Sestros
56. I go on a pleasure voyage in the Brilliant
57. What Don Pedro Blanco thought of my Quixotism
58. My compliments to British cruisers
59. Ups and downs
60. The confession of a dying sailor
61. My establishment at Digby
62. I escape from the bloody scene in a boat
63. Don Pedro Blanco leaves Gallinas
64. I make arrangements for future trade and business with Mr. Redman
65. I find my establishment in danger
66. I am attacked by the British cruiser Termagant
67. My barracooons destroyed
68. We land at Cape Mount
69. Visit to Monrovia
70. I remove, and settle permanently at New Florence
71. Account of the character of the Vey negroes
72. My workshops, gardens and plantations
73. Fana-Toro's war, and its effect on my establishment.