The memoirs of Captain Hugh Crow : the life and times of a slave trade captain /[introduction by John Pinfold].

Memoirs of Captain Hugh Crow (1765-1829), originally published in 1830 after his death. Crow was involved in the slave trade for seventeen years, making thirteen transatlantic voyages on slave-trading vessels, the last seven of these as master. Crow's Memoirs were written during his retirement but unlike other slave-trade captains he continued to justify his position and defend the trade after abolition. Crow remained convinced that the slave trade was a legitimate form of commerce and even that enslaved people were treated better and had a better life on the plantations than in Africa, both arguments being used by other supporters of the trade at the time. The Memoirs also provide an account of the conditions and practicalities of life at sea on board a slave-trading ship.