# Dark Voyage: An American Privateer's War on Britain's African Slave Trade - Hardcover

by **Christian M. McBurney** (Author)

At the start of the American War of Independence, Great Britain dominated overseas commerce and was the leading slave-trading nation in the world. In 1776, American privateers--privately owned ships granted commissions by the Continental Congress to attack and disrupt enemy trade--began to prey on British merchantmen. Some privateers captured British slave ships with African captives on board just before they arrived at their Caribbean Island destinations.  
One privateer was given an extraordinary task: to sail across the Atlantic to attack British slave trading posts and ships on the coast of West Africa. Based on a little-known contemporary primary source, _The Journal of the Good Ship Marlborough_, the story of this remarkable voyage is told here for the first time and will have a major impact on our understanding of the Atlantic slave trade and the American Revolution. The voyage of the _Marlborough_ was the brainchild of John Brown, a prominent Rhode Island merchant--and an investor in two slave trading voyages himself. The motivation was not altruistic. The officers and crew of the _Marlborough_ wanted to advance the cause of independence from Britain through harming Britain's economy, but they also desired to enrich themselves by selling the plunder they captured--including enslaved Africans.  
The work of the _Marlborough_ and other American privateers was so disruptive that it led to an unintended consequence: virtually halting the British slave trade. British slave merchants, alarmed at losing money from their ships being captured, invested in many fewer slave voyages. As a result tens of thousands of Africans were not forced onto slave ships, transported to the New World, and consigned to a lifetime of slavery or an early death.  
In _Dark Voyage: An American Privateer's War on Britain's African Slave Trade_, veteran researcher and writer Christian McBurney recreates the harrowing voyage of the _Marlborough_, while placing it in the context of Atlantic World slavery. In Africa, _Marlborough_'s officers come across an array of African and European slave traders willing to assist them in attacking the British. This book is also the first study to detail the many captures American privateers made of British slave ships during the Revolutionary War.

### Author Biography

**Christian McBurney** is author of six books on the American Revolutionary war, including _Kidnapping the Enemy: The Special Operations to Capture Generals Charles Lee and Richard Prescott_ and _The Rhode Island Campaign: The First French and American Operation in the Revolutionary War_. He is also the author of many articles on American Revolution history, including "The American Revolution Sees the First Efforts to Limit the African Slave Trade," in _Journal of the American Revolution, Annual Volume_ 2021. He is president of the George Washington American Revolution Round Table of the District of Columbia and manages the online journal, _Small State, Big History_, devoted to the history of Rhode Island. He practices law in Washington, DC.

**Number of Pages:** 384

**Dimensions:** 1.3 x 9 x 6.3 IN

**Publication Date:** July 05, 2022

## Details

- **Price:** 35.0 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 35.00 USD | In stock |

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- Dark Voyage: An American Privateer's War on Britain's African Slave Trade - Hardcover

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