Henry Smeathman, the Flycatcher: Natural History, Slavery, and Empire in the Late Eighteenth Century

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In 1771 Joseph Banks and other wealthy collectors sent a talented, self-taught naturalist to Sierra Leone to collect all things rare and curious, from moths to monkeys. Henry Smeathman’s expedition to the West African coast, which coincided with a steep rise in British slave trading in this area, lasted four years during which time he built a house on the Banana Islands, married into the coast’s ruling dynasties, and managed to negotiate the tricky life of a ‘stranger’ bound to his landlord and local customs. In this book, which draws on a rich and little-known archive of journals and letters, Coleman retraces Smeathman’s life as he shuttled between his home on the Bananas and two key Liverpool trading forts—Bunce Island and the Isles de Los. In the logistical challenges of tropical collecting and the dispatch of specimens across the middle passage we see the close connection between science and slavery. We also see the hardening of Smeathman’s attitude towards the slaves, a change of sentiment which was later reversed by four years in the West Indies. The book concludes with the 'Flycatcher' back in London - a celebrated termite specialist, eager to return to West Africa to establish a free, antislavery settlement.

Deirdre Coleman is the Robert Wallace Chair of English at the University of Melbourne. She is the author of 'Romantic Colonization and British Anti-Slavery' and has recently published essays in the 'Oxford History of the Novel' , the 'Cambridge Companion to Eighteenth-Century British Women Writers' , and 'Archives of Natural History' . Her research interests lie in literature, colonialism, slavery and natural history.

Language: English

Pages: 336

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Release: September 01, 2018

ISBN: 1786940531

ISBN 13: 9781786940537

Henry Smeathman, the Flycatcher: Natural History, Slavery, and Empire in the Late Eighteenth Century

Deirdre Coleman

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Language: English

Pages: 336

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: Liverpool University Press

Release: September 01, 2018

ISBN: 1786940531

ISBN 13: 9781786940537

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Henry Smeathman, the Flycatcher: Natural History, Slavery, and Empire in the Late Eighteenth Century

Henry Smeathman, the Flycatcher: Natural History, Slavery, and Empire in the Late Eighteenth Century

Henry Smeathman, the Flycatcher: Natural History, Slavery, and Empire in the Late Eighteenth Century

More books from Deirdre Coleman

Minds, Bodies, Machines, 1770-1930

Maiden Voyages and Infant Colonies: Two Women's Travel Narratives of the 1790s

Women Writing Home, 1700-1920 Vol 1: Female Correspondence Across the British Empire

Romantic Colonization And British Anti Slavery

Women Writing Home, 1700-1920 Vol 6: Female Correspondence Across the British Empire

Women Writing Home, 1700-1920 Vol 2: Female Correspondence Across the British Empire

Women Writing Home, 1700-1920 Vol 3: Female Correspondence Across the British Empire

Women Writing Home, 1700-1920 Vol 5: Female Correspondence Across the British Empire

Women Writing Home, 1700-1920 Vol 4: Female Correspondence Across the British Empire