Abstract
Abstract The Portuguese schooner Arrogante was captured in late November 1837 by HMS Snake, off the coast of Cuba. At the time, the Arrogante had more than 330 Africans on board, who had been shipped from the Upper Guinea coast. Once the vessel arrived in Montego Bay, Jamaica, the British authorities apprenticed those who had survived. Shortly after landing, however, the Arrogante’s sailors were accused of slaughtering an African man, cooking his flesh, and forcing the rest of those enslaved on board to eat it. Furthermore, they were also accused of cooking and eating themselves the heart and liver of the same man. This article focuses not so much on the actual event, as on the transatlantic process that followed, during which knowledge was produced and contested, and relative meanings and predetermined cultural notions associated with Europeans and Africans were probed and queried.
Highlights
In a private letter to his brother, written a couple of months later, Milne referred to the Africans on board as “actual skeletons with death in their countenances.”3 Milne, a seasoned officer who had encountered several slave vessels before, confessed to be shocked as never before by the sight of “dead children lying about the deck” while others were in “the last stage, all calling for food and water & pointing to their mouths.”4
When the ship came across hms Snake, 64 of them had died, and by the time the Africans were landed in Montego Bay 11 days later, 74 more had passed away, in spite of all the attentions given to them by the assistant-surgeon of hms Snake, who had accompanied Lieutenant Miller
A third group of 11 Africans, which included Kyennia and Cawley, both of whom had been interviewed by Finlayson and Facey, came before Campbell, Pringle, and occasionally Evelyn in Lucea, between July 18 and August 2. It was in this last group that the largest number of direct witnesses was concentrated. By the time they testified, Finlayson and Facey, mostly basing their conclusions on a biased letvia free access barcia ter sent by Lieutenant Miller, on the subjective opinion of Roby, and on the erratic deposition of Bamboo, had hurriedly concluded that there was not “sufficient evidence to substantiate the allegation that the slaves in question were subsisted on human flesh during the voyage,” an inference that seems to have satisfied the colonial authorities in Kingston and Secretary of State for War and the Colonies Lord Glenelg in London, even though the investigation in Jamaica was not entirely closed until early August
Summary
Samme, who was 16 or 17 years old at the time, told how the sailors used to take “some of the girls upon deck at night for their wives.”43 Both Caycoola and Banna recalled how one of the White men known to them as Papiau or Papio tried to rape one of the Africans called Caffasano, and how when she resisted he beat her so badly that he cut her eye and forehead.44 According to Candune, another girl called Wenga “was taken from the hold upon deck by a sailor,” where he “had connexion [sic] with her.”45 And in what was perhaps the most astonishing case of rape reported, two witnesses, Nambey and Banniy, independently described how after Lieutenant Miller had taken command of the ship, one of the slave dealers who had been allowed to remain on board, “beat a woman with a cat all night [sic] because she would not submit to him.” According to Nambey and Banniy, the woman, named Yacca, died soon after as a result of the beating, and had to be thrown overboard after “the man-of-war people could not find it [the perpetrator of the rape] out.”46
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
