Mar 20 at 10:30 AM - Sale 2697 -
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Sale 2697 - Lot 352

Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
(SLAVE TRADE.) Description of 418 people rescued from a Portuguese slave ship by the British navy. Manuscript Signed by George Macaulay as Marshal and Kenneth Macaulay as acting King's Proctor. 2 pages, 14¾ x 9½ inches, plus integral blank; worn and soiled, 3 short tape repairs, 2 x 1-inch area of loss on fore-edge with loss of several words. Sierra Leone, 27 May 1814
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Additional Details

This document is headed "Statement of the Countries from which the Slaves on Board the ship Victoria came & of the means by which they were procured, as declared by themselves when examined by . . . the Vice Admiralty Court, Sierra Leone."

It collectively describes 418 people who had been rescued from slavery. For example, 41 men and 23 women were "Joliffs purchased by Sam Pierre, an inhabitant of Goree, a British subject, and brought by him to Bissau." A diverse group of more than 100 people "appear to have been chiefly supplied by the natives to traders at Bajiba. A few of them were carried to Bissau at once. From their own account, they were principally caught in war & kidnapped." This group included 95 "Mandingoes principally from the northern branch of that nation." Another group of 104 at the end "appear to be the only part of the cargo that came from the cargo close to Bissau."

"We certify that we examined the slaves on board the Portuguese ship Victoria, detained by the HM colonial brig Princess Charlotte, with proper interpreters, and that the above account is a true statement of their answers."

One of the signers was Kenneth Macaulay (1792-1829), a young British official who went on to prominence in Sierra Leone, serving a term as acting governor.

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