Captain Canot; Or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver

A firsthand memoir recounts two decades of involvement in the West African slave trade, tracing voyages along the coast, inland expeditions, shipboard life, and operations in the Caribbean. The narrator details encounters with African societies, local rulers, warfare, superstition, and the business practices and moral compromises of trafficking in enslaved people, interweaving personal adventures, escapes, and reflections on the consequences of a life built on profit and violence. The account balances vivid episodic anecdotes with ethnographic observations and critical commentary on colonial commerce, moral responsibility, and the human cost of the trade.