Overview

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.

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9781846310676

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Schwarz's scholarship is without flaw... this is not only a fascinating read, but it should prove very useful in teaching students about slavery and its contradictions. -- Professor Paul Lovejoy York University Canada. This revised second edition makes a very worthwhile contribution to the literature on the British slave trade. While the primary source material is arranged according to a sensible, professional editing scheme, it is rendered meaningful by Suzanne Schwarz's excellent introductory chapters, references and annotations. Slave Captain therefore reveals much about Liverpool's role in the transatlantic slave trade as well as the life, career and attitudes of one of uts many practitioners. International Journal of Maritime History, Vol XX, No. 2 200812 Schwarz has also made effective and extensive use of the transatlantic slave trade data base to fill out details about the slave ship journeys in which Irving participated. The result is an exemplary edition that will be useful for scholars, students and not least, for people interested in the history of Liverpool and its interactions with the wider world. Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire Volume 157

'Schwarz's scholarship is without flaw... this is not only a fascinating read, but it should prove very useful in teaching students about slavery.' Paul Lovejoy, York University, Canada

Author Information

Suzanne Schwarz is associate professor of history at Liverpool Hope University and the coeditor of Liverpool and Transatlantic Slavery.

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