![]() ![]() One result of their presence was the development of small black settlements in Britain’s port cities. Although most never advanced beyond the rank of landsman or able seaman, black petty officers were not unusual, and the case of a frigate captain of mixed background (John Perkins) has been recorded. For many African men in the Atlantic world, a life at sea offered more opportunities than one on land. The navy’s constant need for manpower also prompted the recruitment of free black labour. African men, some enslaved, were a constant feature of this fighting force. The Royal Navy guaranteed British dominance in the Atlantic world and the security of plantation societies throughout the Caribbean. Current estimates are that at least 10,000 lived in London, with a further 5,000 throughout the country. Inevitably, black people had been arriving in all parts of the British Isles, unwillingly and willingly, for over two centuries. ![]() Working a minimum of 3,000 unpaid hours yearly, they generated much of the wealth from which the new manufacturing economy would be created. There were over a million enslaved Africans in the British West Indies. In 1781 the Solicitor-General John Lee, commenting on the Zong Massacre in which 122 Africans were thrown overboard in order to save water rations, stated: ‘Blacks are goods and property.’īy the end of the 18th century Britain was the leading trader in human lives across the Atlantic. Sometimes described as ‘slave-servants’, they were often of indeterminate status. Even at the height of the abolition movement there were spaces where Africans trained in domestic service could be bought. The sale of individual young African men and women was a feature of port city life – particularly in London. Success of this kind was unusual, though, and for black people of every rank it was the shadow of slavery that had shaped their lives.
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