Extract from ‘Interrogatories of Frances Carnero’, 1611-1613. Catalogue Ref: HCA 24/75
‘Interrogatories’ were written questions asked by one party in a legal case to which the defendant or a witness has to give written answers under oath.
Frances Carnero was Portuguese merchant who had been brought back from São Tomé (St. Thomas) Island in the Caribbean to London by a Captain John Moore. Moore was an English captain on the ship ‘The Archangel or The Little John of London’, who had also travelled to São Tomé.
Transcript
Article or Interrogatories ministred [ministered, drawn up]
on the behalf of Frances Carnero
of Lisbon merchant now residing
in the citty of London as followeth
1 In Primis vizt [Firstly] that in the month of June or July 1609 the said Francis
Carnero did buy had and got in trade of
merchandize at a place called Angola in
Gwyny [unreadable] black moores [Black servants, enslaved African peoples] or negroes Et point [and put] [?]
[?] et de quality [just as] [Latin Legal Phrase]
2 Item that the said Frances Carnero did carry
and convey with his go in trade of merchandize
From Angola aforesaid vnto [unto] the Island of
Margarita in the West Indies and did
Take and carry with him to Margarita aforesaid
His said Moores et ponit vt supra [and put as above].
- Where was Frances Carnero in 1609?
- What does it suggest about the author’s attitude towards enslaved individuals?
- What is the connection between the growth of the transatlantic slave trade and the establishment of sugar and tobacco plantations in the New World?