Feb 27, 2007 - Sale 2105

Sale 2105 - Lot 3

Price Realized: $ 33,600
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 15,000 - $ 25,000
THE LOGBOOK OF A NOTED SLAVE-SHIP CAPTAIN BRIGGS, NATHANIEL, Captain. "Journal Book for Affrica." The Logbook/Journal of the slave ships Betsey and Salley, 1765-1767. 62 pages written on 31 leaves, in Briggs's difficult handwriting. The covers are heavy paste paper stock bearing numerous jottings and calculations, presumably from captain Briggs; paper toned; a few professional archival repairs. With a full typed transcription; the entire document has been professionally conserved. Vp, 1765-66
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Additional Details

The slave ships Betsey and Salley were owned by the noted Newport, Rhode Island merchant Aaron Lopez. They were commanded, as were many of Lopez's other ships by Nathaniel Briggs. This journal covers Briggs's first voyages for Lopez.
Aaron Lopez (1731-1782) was born in Portugal. His family was Jewish, but because of the inquisition became "conversos." The family left Portugal in 1740 and settled in Rhode Island. Over the next decades Lopez was a major force in the Jewish community of the American colony, co-founding the famous Touro synagogue and running businesses that included whaling, the spermaceti candle industry and general mercantile trade. And like many merchants in 18th century America, Lopez engaged in the slave-trade.
The first entry in the logbook is on July 24, 1765, with the Betsey outward bound from Newport to the West Coast of Africa. There are day to day entries with weather and navigational observations; some entries record the crew preparing for their eventual cargo of slaves.
On arrival at Senegal, Briggs records that there is "no trade" (no slaves available) there, and moves down the coast to various locations until reaching Cape Vargas on September 28, 1765. On February 3rd, the Betsey begins her voyage out from Sierra Leone for Barbados, but in fact [according to other records] she proceeds to Jamaica. The exact number of slaves on board is not recorded; only one death among the slaves is recorded on the voyage, that of "a gal slave" 3 feet, 6 inches tall.
The final leg of the voyage is recorded from Port Royal, April 23, 1766. The Betsey sails around the western tip of Cuba along the Florida Keys, and up the coast, arriving at The Hamptons, L.I. May 18th. On the previous day, Briggs records "speaking" (sighting and contacting) another sloop from Barbados to New London which informs him that the British Stamp Act has been repealed.
The Voyage of the Brig Salley began on August 23rd, 1766 from Newport , arriving at Cape Verde October 13 after an uneventful crossing. The second leg of the Salley's "triangle" begins on February 8th from Cape Coast on the Gold Coast to Barbados with 216 slaves recorded aboard. Of that number 18 are recorded as having perished during the "Middle Passage." Not every individual death is recorded, though on March 4th the first death is noted with a typical, business-like entry: "this day buried a man slave with the flax (sic, flux). On March 30, 11 slaves are recorded as dying, though only 5 individual deaths are recorded, including one man with marked "SL" on the foot. Afterwards, Briggs numbers the total losses until April 9. Two more deaths follow on the 14th, making a total of 18. On April 20th the Salley arrives in Barbados where Briggs again does not make entries until his homeward bound leg of the voyage from St. Christopher on June 12th, 1767. The log ends June 23 off Georgia.
Transcribing the journal/logbook was made difficult by Briggs's near illiteracy, resulting in frequent misspellings and often undecipherable handwriting. Thus many words have been provided, using logic and context, and are in brackets. A totally unknown word is left as it appears with a question mark. Any references to Negroes or slaves are typed in red. This logbook seems to be typical of the few others examined, including Nathaniel Briggs' subsequent logbook of several voyages held in the Rhode Island Historical Society Library.