Charles Foy

"Sewing a Safety Net: Scarborough's Maritime Community, 1747-1765"

Charles Foy — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 12:35:17 PST

From 1747 to 1765 Scarborough created a safety net to keep its maritime dependents from becoming impoverished. A web of kinship connections that permitted sailors to move between land and sea as well as between maritime roles as they aged; the employment of maritime servants; the extensive hiring of elderly seamen; the use of the Seamen’s Sixpence after legislative reform in 1747 to develop locally operated seamen’s hospitals for the benefit of sailors and their families; and strong community support of the hospitals worked together to provide a social safety net that was, by eighteenth century standards, robust and effective.

Sewing a Safety Net: Scarborough's Maritime Community, 1747-1765

Charles Foy — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 13:37:18 PDT

On 31 March 1748, during a voyage from Scarborough to London, the fifty- six-year-old seaman Thomas Williamson died. The same year, on a three-month coasting voyage from Scarborough, Diamond's fourteen-man crew in- cluded forty-year-old Enoch Harrison, forty-five-year-old Samuel Clark, forty- year-old George Addison and fifty-four-year-old George Welborn. The presence of older sailors on Scarborough ships was common; over thirteen percent of the seamen on vessels sailing from Scarborough between 1747 and 1765 were men forty years of age or older. Alongside these weathered tars, young servants comprised twenty-two percent of Scarborough crews. On numerous Scarborough craft, including Elizabeth and Margaret, Peril and Dragon, young servants made up a majority of the crew. While considerable numbers of both old and young sailors served aboard Scarborough vessels, ashore Ann Dickin- son and numerous other mariners' widows were provided monthly stipends by the local Trinity House Seaman's Hospital for more than a decade. Scarborough's experience of large numbers of both older mariners and young servants on its ships, and mariners' widows receiving significant charitable assistance, was not a one-year aberration but continued from 1747 to 1765. In short, Scarborough does not conform to the stereotypical image of an eighteenth-century maritime community comprised of healthy young adult seamen whose wives were often left to struggle on their own in their absence.

Eighteenth Century ‘Prize Negroes’: From Britain to America

Charles R. Foy — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:40:50 PST

Eighteenth-century Anglo-American prize systems were highly organized

enterprises for the provision of coerced labor. Offering whites opportunities to

participate in a lucrative market, they extended the reach of American slavery

beyond the shores of the Americas, reinforced slavery in North America and

greatly limited opportunities for freedom for black seamen. Although Americans

desired that their new nation provide greater individual liberty, the American prize

system applied the same presumption - that captured black mariners were slaves -

as had its British predecessor, resulting in the sale of hundreds of black seamen

into slavery.

Ports of Slavery, Ports of Freedom: How Slaves Used Northern Seaports’ Maritime Industry To Escape and Create Trans-Atlantic Identities, 1713-1783

Charles Foy — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:16:48 PST

This dissertation examines and reconstructs the lives of fugitive slaves who used the maritime industries in New York, Philadelphia and Newport to achieve freedom. It focuses on slaves during the period between 1713, the end of Queen Anne’s War, and 1783, the end of the American Revolution. While the study’s primary focus is on slavery in three port cities, it employs a broad geographic approach to consider how enslaved individuals in rural areas surrounding New York, Philadelphia and Newport, as well as slaves in more distant regions, used the maritime industry in northern port cities to escape slavery. Maritime work provided unique opportunities for fugitive slaves to exploit conflicts among whites to create relative autonomy and obtain freedom. The work makes five significant contributions to the field of early American history. First, the dissertation demonstrates that the key characteristics of slavery in northern ports were slaves’ mobility, the diversity of the labor they performed, and their strong connection to the Atlantic maritime community. Second, it illustrates that the maritime industry in northern port cities of British North America provided slaves viable means to obtain freedom. Third, it describes the significant eighteenth century black maritime community in port cities of British North America and the larger Black Atlantic. Its fourth contribution is to the field of Atlantic history. The work depicts the interconnections among Atlantic ports in the eighteenth century. It also globalizes the struggle of enslaved peoples by placing their flight to freedom within a larger Atlantic ii context. The last, but far from least, contribution of this study is that it personalizes the stories of enslaved individuals, many of whose lives have remained largely unknown.

Unkle Somerset’s’ freedom: liberty in England for black sailors

Charles Foy — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:44:06 PST

With his 1772 decree in Somerset v. Steuart that slavery was ‘so odious that nothing can be suffered to support it [in England] but positive law’, Lord Mansfield altered the legal landscape regarding black rights in England. While earlier judicial decisions had implied that slaves who came to England were free, prior to the Somerset decision there was no judicial consensus on the issue. The Somerset decision did not decree that slavery was illegal in England. Yet many blacks believed it ‘emancipated’ any slave who reached the shores of England. This understanding, combined with the British military welcoming runaways into its ranks during the American Revolution, led to several thousand former slaves reaching England, a considerable number of whom were mariners. Although the Royal Navy was not isolated from the racism or harsh legal treatment of blacks, naval personnel often assisted ex-slaves to obtain freedom in England. The freedom black mariners found in England was fairly limited; they remained subject to re-enslavement, had limited legal protections over employment conditions and were often homeless and poor. Despite such conditions, life in England was a considerable improvement over enslavement in the Americas for many former slave mariners. Slave mariners on the sloop Lawrence illustrate the means black mariners took to obtain freedom, the Royal Navy’s role in ex-slave mariners becoming free and the limits of freedom in England.

Uncovering Hidden Lives: Developing a Database of Mariners in the Black Atlantic

Charles Foy — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 12:31:50 PST

Seeking Freedom in the Atlantic World, 1713-1783

Charles Foy — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 20:53:52 PDT