Slave captain : the career of James Irving in the Liverpool slave trade / edited with an introduction by Suzanne Schwarz.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Schwarz, Suzanne.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Irving, James, 1759-1791.

Irving, James.

Slave trade--England--Liverpool--History--18th century.

Slave trade.

Slave traders--England--Liverpool--Biography.

Slave traders.

Slave traders--England--Liverpool--History--18th century.

History.

England--Liverpool.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xiv, 212 pages : maps ; 24 cm

Edition:

Revised second edition.

Place of Publication:

Liverpool : Liverpool University Press, 2008.

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Part 1 James Irving's Career

2 Early Career in the Liverpool Slave Trade 7

3 Irving's Voyages in the Transatlantic Slave Trade 20

4 Shipwreck and Enslavement 39

5 Freedom and Return to England 65

Part 2 James Irving's Correspondence, 1786-1791 81

Part 3 Journal of James Irving's Shipwreck and Enslavement, May 1789-October 1790 125

A 'Short Account' by James Irving II, June-October 1789 149.

Notes:

First published in 1995 by Bridge Books.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [195]-204) and index.

ISBN:

9781846310676

1846310679

OCLC:

154689953