The Black Joke : the true story of one ship's battle against the slave trade / A. E. Rooks.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rooks, A. E., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mary (Sloop : active 1819).

Great Britain. Royal Navy. African Squadron.

Great Britain.

Slave trade--Africa--History--19th century.

Slave trade.

History.

Great Britain--History, Naval--19th century.

Naval history.

Africa.

Genre:

History.

Naval history.

Physical Description:

x, 382 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First Scribner hardcover edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2022.

Summary:

The most feared ship in Britain's West Africa Squadron, His Majesty's brig Black Joke was one of a handful of ships tasked with patrolling the western coast of Africa in an effort to end hundreds of years of global slave trading. Sailing after the spectacular fall of Napoleon in France, yet before the rise of Queen Victoria's England, Black Joke was first a slaving vessel itself, and one with a lightning-fast reputation; only a lucky capture in 1827 allowed it to be repurposed by the Royal Navy to catch its former compatriots. Over the next five years, the ship's diverse crew and dedicated commanders would capture more ships and liberate more enslaved people than any other in the Squadron. Author A.E. Rooks chronicles the adventures on this ship and its crew in a narrative of the history of Britain's suppression efforts. As Britain slowly attempted to snuff out the transatlantic slave trade by way of treaty and negotiation, enforcing these policies fell to the Black Joke and those that sailed with it as they battled slavers, weather disasters, and interpersonal drama among captains and crew that reverberated across oceans. In this history of the daring feats of a single ship, the abolition of the international slave trade is revealed as an inexplicably extended exercise involving tense negotiations between many national powers, both colonizers and formerly colonized, that would stretch on for decades longer than it should have.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: ch. One Henriqueta

ch. Two Gertrudis

ch. Three Providencia

ch. Four Vengador, Presidente & Zepherina

ch. Five El Almirante

ch. Six Carolina

ch. Seven Cristina

ch. Eight Manzanares

ch. Nine Dos Amigos

ch. Ten Primero

ch. Eleven Marinerito

ch. Twelve Regulo & Rapido

ch. Thirteen Frasquita.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 353-366) and index.

ISBN:

9781982128265

1982128267

OCLC:

1259050022

Publisher Number:

99989849278