“His Master (if any he has)” Race, Slavery, Newspapers, and Black Seafarers in the 18th Century Anglo-Atlantic

Abstract

On the night of November 12th, 1773, a Black sailor named Nath saw his chance. He fled from the schooner Two Brothers, docked in Boston Harbor. The next day, the man who claimed to be his master would publish a notice in the Boston Gazette, offering a reward for Nath’s return.1 This would be one of many such notices published in the British colonies of North America as enslaved Black sailors used their skills and their lives at sea to resist their enslavement. The newspapers of the 18th century, written by and for a white audience, preserve the struggles of African sailors and the ongoing construction of race in the Anglo-Atlantic world. This article examines the references made in those newspapers to Black sailors, to locate both the racial construction of the 18th century, and the resistance of Black sailors. Black sailors made regular efforts to escape or resist slavery, and that resistance is clearly visible in the record.