Henry Smeathman, the flycatcher : natural history, slavery, and empire in the late eighteenth century
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Bibliographic Information
Henry Smeathman, the flycatcher : natural history, slavery, and empire in the late eighteenth century
（Romantic reconfigurations : studies in literature and culture 1780-1850）
Liverpool University Press, 2018
- : [hardcover]
Available at 1 libraries
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 291-311) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
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.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Introduction: Smeathmania
Chapter 1: Metamorphosis
Chapter 2: Prospects
Chapter 3: Residence
Chapter 4: Housekeeping
Chapter 5: Currency
Chapter 6: Doldrums
Chapter 7: Antislavery
Chapter 8: Prodigal Returns
Conclusion: Legacies
Appendix:
Proposals for printing by subscription, Voyages and travels in Africa and the West-Indies, from the year 1771, to the year 1779 inclusive [London, 1780].
'Oeconomy of a Slave Ship'.
'Mr Smeathman's Useful hints for those who intend to visit or settle in Africa and other hot Climates'.
'Some Account of the Termites, which are found in Africa and other hot climates. In a Letter from Mr. Henry Smeathman, of Clement's Inn, to Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. P. R. S.', Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London vol.71 (1781).
Bibliography
Index
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