Narrative Accounts, 1680–1806
English Sea Captain, 1680
The Maner of the Ship Sampson in stress of Wether on the 25
day of Aprill, 1694, in South Lattitude 29 degreis & 50 minutes.
Drawing by Edward Barlow from his journal
Courtesy of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
Hurricane winds and high seas
Edward Barlow describes conditions in the Caribbean during a voyage from Jamaica
to England in 1680.
Transcript
African Slave, 1756
Olaudah Equiano, engraving by Daniel Orme, after W. Denton,
1789
Courtesy National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, NPG.78.82
The Middle Passage
Olaudah Equiano describes his sickness and terror as an 11-year-old captive aboard
a slave ship from Africa to Barbados in 1756.
Transcript
American Woman Passenger, 1778
“Dominia Anglorum in America Septentrionali,” 1759.
Courtesy of Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress.
Seasickness, a “frolick,” and storms
Louisa Susannah Wells describes conditions in the North Atlantic during a voyage
from New York to London in 1778.
Transcript
English Sailor, 1787
Map of Philadelphia and Parts Adjacent, by N. Scull and G. Heap,
1752.
Courtesy of Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress.
Rats aboard ship
Samuel Kelly describes his encounters with shipboard vermin on a voyage to
Philadelphia in 1787.
Transcript
American Officer on Slaver, 1795
Joseph Hawkins, 1797.
Reproduced from A History of a Voyage to the Coast of Africa...
Slave ship
Joseph Hawkins describes bringing slaves to a ship and preparing to sail from Africa
to the West Indies in 1795.
Transcript
American Sailor (Former Slave), 1806
John Jea.
Reproduced from The Life, History, and Unparalleled Sufferings of John Jea, the
African Preacher.
Learning the way of a ship
John Jea describes his confusion and fright on his first voyage from Boston to
Liverpool in about 1806.
Transcript