"Of the hundreds of logbooks and journals I have examined, this is the most valuable for the slave trade in western Africa.... Mouser s] exhaustive background research and editing are exemplary." George Brooks
Captain Samuel Gamble s log contains the record of a slaving venture to Africa and Jamaica that nearly failed. It is one of the best firsthand narratives of the slave trade to survive. Bruce Mouser s faithfully transcribed and carefully annotated edition of Gamble s log provides a haunting perspective on slave trading at the end of the 18th century. Gamble was captain of the British merchant Sandown. During 1793 1794, the ship embarked on a commercial venture from England to Upper Guinea in West Africa to buy slaves and transport them for sale in Kingston, Jamaica. Gamble describes shipping at the beginning of the Anglo-French war in 1793, naval and nautical procedures for the English-African-West Indian trade, and the slave-trading patterns and institutions on the African coast and at Kingston, Jamaica. He recounts as well a yellow fever epidemic that swept the Atlantic and crippled commerce on both sides of the ocean. Mouser s extensive annotations place Gamble s account in historical context and explain for the reader Gamble s observations on commerce, disease, and African peoples along the Upper Guinea coast."