Captain Theodore Canot Summary

Ian D’Silva November 5, 2014

Writing101: Annotated Biliography Professor Pinuelas

How Does Rhetorical Context Affect the Presentation of Objectification?

Canot, Theodore, and Brantz Mayer. Adventures of an African Slaver: An Account of the Life of Captain Theodore Canot, Trader in Gold, Ivory, and Slaves on the Coast of Guinea: Written out and Edited from the Captain’s Journals, Memoranda and Conversations by Brantz Mayer. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2002

This is a primary account of a French slaver in Africa in the beginning of the 19th century. It discusses author’s journey to Africa for slaves. He discusses the treatment and discipline of slaves on the slave ships. A unique aspect of this work is that he discusses the suppression

of a slave revolt during the transatlantic voyage.

This rhetorical stance of being a slave trader doesn’t have any unique aspects to it, but Theodore Canot does have experiences that other narratives don’t discuss, such as the slave revolt and the actual adventuring for slaves in Africa. His rhetorical stance affects his presentation in that he objectifies the slaves and presents them as savages in order to make his actions more justifiable.

Davies, Kenneth Gordon. The Royal African Company. London: Longmans, Green, 1957

This work examines the Royal African Company in its entire existence. It assesses the company on its administration and operation. It talks about the its imports from Africa and its trade in the West Indies. Discusses the terms for trade for slaves in Africa, the diplomatic relations with the natives as well as with other nations, and statistical and descriptive voyages of different vessels. It also contains many of the records on their exports and imports from the Royal African Company.

This source has no apparent immediate relevance to where the research is being taken, but could prove useful if the semantics of how the slave trade is managed by corporations is necessary to further understand the one’s rhetorical standpoint.

Dow, George Francis. Slave Ships and Slaving. Salem, MA.: Marine Research Society, 1927

This work is contains commentaries by doctors and captains of slave ships and testimonies for parliament investigating the slave trade. Slave captains discuss the danger of collecting slaves from Africa and present the conditions aboard the slave ship as more favorable than other accounts may attest.

This work can be used to complement Robert Durand’s private Journal from Robert Harms work.

They are both slave ship captains but they have different rhetorical stances because of their intended audience, and this produces a differentiation in the presentation of the life on a slave ship. Similar to Theodore Canot, the work describes the slaves as barbaric to justify their harsh treatments but also describes how they treat the slaves well so that they are treating their captives humanely.

Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of The Life Olauda. Simon and Brown, 2012

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is a particularly interesting object because it is primary, in that he is telling us, in the first person, about his own experiences. Personal accounts from slaves are scarce, and so, this is a crucial source in analyzing the reactions to slaves being objectified in the slave trade.

Equiano was a slave in Virginia for a short period of time, but the majority of Equiano’s life as a slave was serving the captains of slave ships and British navy vessels. Due to increased time on a slave ship, Equiano experienced much more firsthand exposure to the transatlantic slave trade than any other slave, allowing us to get a deeper look into a slave’s

perspective.

Focusing on analyzing Equiano’s rhetorical stance of being a slave writing for the abolition of slavery, gives us a different perspective to the treatment of slaves in the slave trade. He discusses various ways in which his treatment was inhumane and made him feel horrific to highlight the inhumanity of slavery.

Falconbridge, Alexander. An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa. J. Phillips, 1788

This is a primary account of a British slave ship doctor, Alexander Falconbridge, who becomes an abolitionist. He gives detailed accounts of what he observes when on a transatlantic voyage of a slave ship. His observations range across many different aspects of the slave trade, such as the capture of the slaves, the sale of the slaves, the treatment of the slaves.

This provides a unique rhetorical stance, as he is both a member of the ship’s crew, yet has an abolitionist’s agenda. Since he is writing for the cause of abolition, he includes the horrors that come with the slave trade, while also adding in the mindset of a slaver, since he was working as one himself. Falconbridge’s account can be placed in conversation with the captains of the slave ships accounts from Dow’s and Harm’s work since they all have positions on the slave ship, but have slightly different rhetorical standpoints.

Handler, Jerome S. “Survivors of the Middle Passage: Life Histories of Enslaved Africans in British America.” Slavery and Abolition 23, no. 1 (2002): 25–56

This journal article looks at multiple autobiographies of slaves, in the 17th and 18th centuries, who survived the Middle Passage. Handler focuses on how the slaves were captured, brought and placed aboard ships, and their exposure to the plight of the transatlantic voyage.

The primary aspects of the journal can be used for accounts of slaves with a similar rhetorical context to that of Olaudah Equiano. Since the slaves are writing for the cause of abolition, the emotional trauma that they have gone through is highlighted and focused on in those texts. We can use Handler’s secondary account of the autobiographies to be put in conversation with this project as well as Thompson’s analysis of slave ship crew presentation of song and dance.

Harms, Robert. The Diligent: A Voyage through the Worlds of the Slave Trade. New York: Basic Books, 2002

Robert Harms provides a description of a typical transatlantic voyage of a slave ship. The basis of his work is from First Lieutenant Robert Durand’s 113-page private journal recounting the voyage in 1731 of a French ship called The Diligent. Nothing unusual happens on the voyage, making this account representative of typical slave ship. To ensure the reader is not missing out on what various perils bring, Harms borrows examples from other voyages. The work focuses on events that occur during the slave trade, particularly the subjugation and fear needed to get the cooperation of slaves.

Since Durand’s perspective is derived from a private journal, this work offers an in depth account from a rhetorical standpoint that is useful in comparing and contrasting with both Equiano’s narrative and other accounts from slave traders. The intended audience, primarily himself, has less of an impact on the presentation of events and will be useful to use as an account that is somewhat neutral. However, this account is not completely neutral because we must consider the subliminal mindset of slaves being subhuman that has been ingrained in his head as a slave ship captain. This can be seen as the events described are detailed yet there is a sense of justification in the presentation of the actions as well.

Lovejoy, Paul E. Transformations in Slavery. A History of Slavery in Africa. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000

This work studies the economic reasons for the development of slavery in Africa into the transatlantic slave trade. It examines how the slave trade changed as time went on. He discusses how external forces, namely European countries, pushed the slave trade, although slavery existed in Africa.

This work could come useful when examining how the slave trade developed over time. We could connect this secondary source to changes in rhetorical context of people translated into certain changes in the slave trade.

Rediker, Marcus. The Slave Ship: A Human History. New York: Viking, 2007

This work recreates the slave ship inhabited by kidnapped Africans, sea captains, and the ship crews. The book uses maritime records to recreate the lives of people onboard a slave ship. Rediker specifically focuses on the relationships between the various members on the slave ship (e.g. slaves, crew, and captain). He also goes into the clash between merchants and abolitionists.

This work provides more rhetorical standpoints. It differs from other works in that it also describes the relations between different rhetorical standpoints. This can help us to gain new or deeper perspectives into the relationship between rhetorical contexts and presentations of slave treatment on the slave ship.

Schwarz, Suzanne. Slave Captain: The Career of James Irving in the Liverpool Slave Trade. Second Edition. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2008

This study is on James Irving, a slave ship surgeon and later a captain. James Irving himself was enslaved after being shipwrecked of the coast of Morocco by people he describes as crazy Arabs and savages. Irving’s journal and letters to family and friends and give his presentation of the slavery during a slave ship’s transatlantic voyage. Schwarz provides her own input through introductory chapters and annotations to further enhance the understanding of Irving’s narrative.

This provides an interesting rhetorical context because of Irving being a slave himself for a period of time. Since he survived his enslavement in North Africa, it is particularly interesting and insightful to examine how he, a slave trader, reflects on his own enslavement and how it changed his representation of transatlantic slave trade.

Shaw, Rosalind. Memories of the Slave Trade: Ritual and the Historical Imagination in Sierra Leone. University of Chicago Press, 2002

This work discusses the question “how do Africans, particularly the Temne people of Sierra Leone, remember the past?” More specifically, she asks how the Temne remember the slave trade. There was a huge cooperation from Africans to create the slave trade. Shaw looks into ways other than text or speech to remember the past. She looks into the idea of practical memory and consciousness where the past can be found in culture (e.g. practices, rituals).

This offers a rhetorical context that is subconscious. It also presents a present day rhetorical context which can provide different insight than the other texts provide regarding varying rhetorical contexts. The presentation of the slave trade can be found in the culture rather than varying the presentation in a textual manner can provide profound insight to the issue. This may be hard to incorporate into the general question of how rhetorical context affects the presentation of objectification in the Middle Passage, but if a connection can be made, an original and intriguing idea can surface to elevate the quality of the project.

Sweet, James. Domingos Álvares, African Healing, and the Intellectual History of the Atlantic World. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina, 2011

This is the story of the life of Domingos Alvarez, an African man being traded as a slave by the Portuguese. Much of what we know about Alvarez comes from Inquisition trials in Portugal. James Sweet attempts to use a variety of sources in presenting the life of Alvarez.

This provides many rhetorical representations of the treatment of slaves of which we can analyze to examine the different accounts given varying rhetorical contexts. The Spanish Inquisition files present another unique rhetorical context to put in conversation with the accounts of Equiano and other presentations on the treatment of slaves.

Thomas, Hugh. The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Trade:1440-1870. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1997

This work is a survey of the expansion and nature of the slave trade. Thorough use journals, state documents, ledgers, and narratives, allows us to trace the organization and finances of the trade. This book primarily contains the economic aspect of the slave trade, but also goes into how the slaves suffered and were treated poorly.

The background information, particularly from an economic standpoint, on ship captains and crews can allow us to implement this secondary source for a better understanding as to what the rhetorical stance of the members on board a slave ship are. The economic aspects of the slave trade—selling the slaves and a humane presentation to society to keep the business running—drives many rhetorical stances for the slavers. Information from this book can be used to explain the reasoning behind certain rhetorical stances from which we can then analyze how that affects the presentation of material.

Thompson, Katrina D. Ring Shout, Wheel About: The Racial Politics of Music and Dance in North American Slavery. University of Illinois Press, 2014

This work analyzes song and dance on the Middle Passage as a performance. Thompson provides primary accounts, mainly from the ships crew on the performance. She analyzes the presentation of the song and dance by the ships crew, and discusses their misrepresentation and failure to report the entertainment, sexualization, and subjugation aspects of the song and dance aboard a slave ship. They present the activity as a way to keep the slaves happy and fit.

We can use this work as a primary source to look into the rhetorical standpoint of the ship’s crew and analyzing their presentation of the performance.

The audience of the ship’s crew is buyers and society. They want convince buyers that their slaves are in the best condition while showing society that this is being done in a humane manner. We can use this to make connections with Equiano’s work and analyze how the different rhetorical contexts create different representations of the treatment of slaves.

Since Thompson thoroughly analyzes the representations of the ship crew, we can also use this source as a secondary source. We can put Thompson’s ideas in discussion with ours research and examine how they align and differ.

Walvin, James. An African’s Life: The Life and Times of Olaudah Equiano, 1745–1797. London: Cassell, 1998

This study attempts to get a more comprehensive understanding of Olaudah Equiano by putting his life in context with the slavery. Walvin’s study helps us get a better understanding of what Equiano’s rhetorical context is and how it came to be that way. We can then use this knowledge to analyze Equiano’s accounts with this understanding of his rhetorical stance in

mind.