Ship of death : a voyage that changed the Atlantic world / Billy G. Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, Billy G. (Billy Gordon)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hankey (Ship : 1784).

Yellow fever--Guinea-Bissau--Bolama Island--History--18th century.

Yellow fever.

Bolama Association.

Epidemics--History--18th century.

Epidemics.

Yellow fever--Caribbean Area--History--18th century.

Yellow fever--United States--History--18th century.

Antislavery movements.

History.

Bolama Island (Guinea-Bissau)--Colonization.

Bolama Island (Guinea-Bissau).

Antislavery movements--Great Britain--History--18th century.

Abolitionists--Great Britain--Biography.

Abolitionists.

Great Britain.

United States.

Caribbean Area.

Guinea-Bissau--Bolama Island.

Bolama Island (Guinea-Bissau)--History--18th century.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xviii, 306 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, [2013]

Summary:

"It is no exaggeration to say that the Hankey, a small British ship that circled the Atlantic in 1792 and 1793, transformed the history of the Atlantic world. This extraordinary book uncovers the long-forgotten story of the Hankey, from its altruistic beginnings to its disastrous end, and describes the ship's fateful impact upon people from West Africa to Philadelphia, Haiti to London. Billy G. Smith chased the story of the Hankey from archive to archive across several continents, and he now brings back to light a saga that continues to haunt the modern world. It began with a group of high-minded British colonists who planned to establish a colony free of slavery in West Africa. With the colony failing, the ship set sail for the Caribbean and then North America, carrying, as it turned out, mosquitoes infected with yellow fever. The resulting pandemic as the Hankey traveled from one port to the next was catastrophic. In the United States, tens of thousands died in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Charleston. The few survivors on the Hankey eventually limped back to London, hopes dashed and numbers decimated. Smith links the voyage and its deadly cargo to some of the most significant events of the era-the success of the Haitian slave revolution, Napoleon's decision to sell the Louisiana Territory, a change in the geopolitical situation of the new United States-and spins a riveting tale of unintended consequences and the legacy of slavery that will not die"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Chapter 1 The Hankey 1

Chapter 2 The British Colonists 28

Chapter 3 West Africa 62

Chapter 4 Cross-Cultural Negotiations 75

Chapter 5 Death in Bolama 98

Chapter 6 Grumettas and the Final Days of the "Canabacs' Chickens" 124

Chapter 7 Yellow Jack Comes to the Caribbean 157

Chapter 8 Calamity in the United States Capital 187

Chapter 9 Journal of the Plague Months 206.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780300194524

0300194528

OCLC:

844073982