Record revealed
Affidavit describing the uprising of enslaved people onboard the Bedford
White abolitionists like William Wilberforce are often credited with bringing about the end of Britain’s trade in enslaved people in 1807. However, this affidavit from the same year tells another story. It is testament to the lengths enslaved African people went to in seeking their freedom.
Important information
The following article contains dehumanising and distressing descriptions of enslavement as well as references to suicide. While it offers a record of resistance, the document discussed nevertheless also acts as evidence of the extreme violence and brutal conditions faced by enslaved people at the hands of enslavers (in this case the Captain and crew of the ship).
Images
Image 1 of 2
This is the original affidavit giving Captain Wenman and his crews' account of the insurrection.
Transcript
Part 1:
Jamaica ss,
Gilbert Wenman Master of the Ship Bedford the property of and belonging to Messrs. Thomas Lumley and Company of the City of London Merchants, and now laying at Anchor in the Harbour of Kingston in the Island of Jamaica aforesaid, Philip Leavy Mate of the said Ship and Patrick McKenna Surgeon of the said Ship, being severally duly sworn on the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God respectively make Oath and say that on the second day of February now last past while the said Ship Bedford was laying at Anchor in the Road of Lagoe, on the Gold Coast of Africa, the Slaves then on board the said Ship were ordered about five of the clock in the Evening of that day to go below as usual, but instead of so doing they immediately forcibly seized the whole of the Europeans on the Main Deck, and the Deponent Gilbert Wenman having thereupon discharged a Pistol at one of the said Slaves who had seized the Boatswain of the said Ship, several of the said Slaves to the number of Seventy or Eighty immediately jumped overboard – and these Deponents further severally say that every effort was immediately made by the Deponents and the Crew of the said Ship to recover and save the said Slaves by lowering down the…
Image 2 of 2
This is the duplicate of the original affidavit.
Transcript
Part 2:
…Boat and taking other precautions and they at the same time hoisted the Ensign Union down, which was the means of their receiving every assistance from Fort Tantum and from a Mr. Herbert a Merchant at Lagoe, and through which assistance and exertions of the Crew of the said Ship a great number of the said Slaves were recovered and saved; but these Deponents say that they afterward found a deficiency in the number of the said Slaves of Twenty Nine Males, besides one of the said Slaves being dangerously wounded – And this Deponent the said Gilbert Wenman for himself further Saith that previous to the said Ship leaving the Coast he recovered Twelve [crossed out and Fifteen written in pencil above] of the said Slaves which had so jumped overboard and escaped, and for which he paid the Sum of One Hundred and thirty eight pounds fifteen Shillings Sterling Money of Great Britain as Redemption Money, thereby reducing the number of the said Slaves deficient to Twelve [crossed out and Fourteen written in pencil above] – only
Sworn before me this 19th day of June 1807
Joseph Barnes
Gilbert Wenman
Philip Leavy
Patrick McKenna
Why this record matters
- Date
- 19 June 1807
- Catalogue reference
- C 114/158
This affidavit was not intended to be part of a broader history of enslaved resistance. Instead, it was found in a large collection of private papers that were delivered as evidence in a court lawsuit involving a London merchant who traded enslaved people.
This legal document was intended to protect the Captain of the ship Bedford from fault following an insurrection onboard. It forms part of a ship’s protest detailing damages in terms of financial loss rather than the cost to human life.
Recorded on behalf of the Bedford’s Captain, First Mate, and Surgeon, the sworn testimony offers their version of events. It describes what they claim happened when the 223 African people held captive onboard revolted against their enslavers on 2 February 1807.
In their account, while the Bedford was anchored off the Gold Coast of Africa near the small town of Lagoe (in present-day Ghana), the enslaved people onboard refused to go below deck 'as usual' when they 'were ordered about five of the clock in the Evening'. Instead, they 'immediately forcibly seized the whole of the Europeans on the Main Deck'. The Captain, Gilbert Wenman, was testified as having 'discharged a Pistol at one of the said Slaves who had seized the Boatswain’ at which point 'several of the said Slaves to the number of Seventy or Eighty immediately jumped overboard.'
This was a powerful act of mass resistance, in which those enslaved on the Bedford asserted control over their lives at the risk of death. It serves as a reminder of the contradiction at the heart of Atlantic slavery, which denied humanity while placing financial value on people.
Ultimately, the affidavit shows that Captain Wenman and his crew quickly moved to recapture, or as they put it 'recover and save', most of the enslaved people who jumped overboard. Twelve men were able to escape either by sacrificing themselves or potentially returning to freedom on the Gold Coast.
Although the insurrection occurred off the West African coast, this affidavit was sworn months later, on 19 June 1807, when the Bedford was anchored in Kingston, Jamaica. Over half of the African people enslaved onboard had been sold to plantations on the island by this date. Others continued to be held captive aboard the ship to drive up the prices placed on them. The affidavit therefore also bears witness to the brutal passage across the Atlantic that enslaved Africans were subjected to, as well as the legal structures that underpinned this system.
While Britons continued to traffic African people into enslavement until the trade was abolished in 1807, African people would resist such bondage by any means necessary. As this record shows, they challenged the system of enslavement in ways that white abolitionists never had to.
It shows us that resistance could take many forms and in this case a ship was the battleground.
This research into the affidavit comes from a project on the histories of slave ships (1760-1807) as part of PASSAGE (Partnership for Transatlantic Slavery Scholarship, Archiving and Global Exchange). This is a collaborative research initiative at The National Archives funded by Lloyd’s Register Foundation to enhance and develop knowledge of the maritime trade in enslaved African people. PASSAGE also includes a research mobility programme to centre and support the research of scholars from West Africa and the Caribbean on the history of transatlantic slavery.
Featured articles
Record revealed
‘The Book of Negroes’: Black refugees who fought in the American Revolution
This volume offers a glimpse of the numerous ‘Black Loyalists’ who seized the American Revolutionary War as a chance to gain freedom from enslavement.