Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters and on the Eastern Coast of Africa
Narrative of Five Years' Experiences in the Suppression of the Slave Trade

A two-year struggle to suppress the slave trade and rescue prospective slaves on the African coast in 1849–1850.

George Lydiard Sullivan (Author)

9781108027694, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 January 2011

496 pages, 16 b/w illus. 1 map
21.6 x 14 x 2.8 cm, 0.63 kg

A chronicle of the difficulties and successes of trying to police the slave trading routes on the eastern Indian Ocean. Captain George Sullivan writes of his experiences and frustrations in trying to enforce British anti-slave-trade laws among the Arab and African kingdoms of the east coast of Africa and the islands of Zanzibar, Pemba and Madagascar in 1849. Battling with scorching heat, rough seas, tropical diseases, hostility from the native slavers, and language barriers, the naval ships continue the struggle for abolition. While rescuing a significant number of slaves from transport dhows, the captain chronicles their stories: their tribes, how they were sold into slavery, and the best location to rehabilitate them to avoid re-capture. A fascinating record, published in 1873, of the struggle to enforce the complex abolition laws far from central government, with dubious documents and deceptions encountered from local Arab and Portuguese slavers.

Introduction
The Cruise of the 'Castor': 1. The 'Castor leaves England
2. Cruise of boats
3. Method of conducting the slave-trade
4. The 'Castor' at Zanzibar
The Cruise of the 'Pantaloon': 5. Passage to Aden
6. Visit to the Sultan
The Cruise of the 'Daphne': 7. The 'Daphne' commissioned
8. Slave dhows in Zanzibar harbour
9. Negro tribes
10. Number of captures in 1868
11. Zanzibar
Portuguese Possessions: 12. Portuguese possessions, their claims
13. Conditions of slaves in Portuguese territory
14. Jumah's death
15. Immense number of slaves released
16. Aden
17. A bulwark on the coast necessary
Appendix.

Subject Areas: African history [HBJH]