The ‘Black Atlantic Communication Network’: African American Sailors and the Cape of Good Hope Connection

Abstract

Francis Seymour, a curly headed nigger from the land of stars and stripes, was brought up for having shown a little too much of the Yankee spirit of independence... He became refractory, refused to do any [work], demanded a sovereign from Mr. Neethling, said....that if he did not get the sovereign he would knock it out of [him]. His abuse was very unsparing, and he was only prevented from “knocking it out” by the opportune appearance of Mr. J. J. Meintjes, who procured a police officer, and the “man of independent mind” was given into custody. While on its homeward passage in 1813, the whaling ship William Penn was intercepted off the island of Trinidad in the South Atlantic by a British frigate, boarded, and informed of the existence of war; and that the American seamen were prisoners of H.M.S. Acorn. Within a half hour, the Acorn and its prize (now manned by English sailors) were underway, heading off southeast for the Cape of Good Hope. After a passage of forty days they anchored in Table Bay.