Predator of the Seas A History of the Slaveship That Fought for Emancipation

<b>The dramatic biography of a slaveship turned freedom-fighter--which brings new insights into Britain's involvement in the end of the trade in enslaved people</b><br> <br> <br> <br> In 1827 the Royal Navy purchased a Baltimore clipper and renamed her the <i>Black Joke</i>. Assigned to the Preventative Squadron, she patrolled the west coast of Africa and freed 3,692 captives from enslavement. Beloved by seafarers and celebrated by the public, the <i>Black Joke</i> would become the most famous weapon in the campaign for abolition.<br> <br> <br> <br> But in her previous life as the <i>Henriqueta</i>, the <i>Black Joke</i> had been a slave ship.<br> <br> <br> <br> Through the experiences of slavers and abolitionists, captives and crew, Stephen Taylor charts the vessel's extraordinary double life. As the <i>Henriqueta</i> she operated as an engine of atrocity, trafficking over 3,000 captives to plantations in Brazil. But subsequently manned by British seamen and Liberian Kru, the <i>Black Joke</i> became the scourge of Spanish and Brazilian slavers. She did so despite limited resources, neglect, and even obstruction by the authorities at home.<br> <br> <br> <br> Taylor offers a gripping account of the world of the transatlantic trade, through the eyes of its perpetrators--and those who sought its end.<br> <br>