William Boats
William Boats (1716-1794) was a Liverpool slave trader.[1] Boats was responsible for 157 slave voyages, over half of his slaves were sent from the Bight of Biafra to Jamaica.[2]
He had shares in at least 156 Guineaman.[3] Liverpool Privateers wrote that Boats was a "waif" found in a boat and enrolled in a "Blue Coat School". It claims that he was apprenticed to "the sea" and rose to be a commander of a slave ship, becoming "one of the leading merchants and shipowners of Liverpool". Continuing, it says he married "Ms. Brideson" and captured a Spanish ship rich in gold and treasure. Liverpool Privateers talks of a Liverpool paper which announced his death at the age of 78, calling him a "most useful member of society".[4]
Boats was the first slaver to have his ships sheathed in copper to prevent infestations of wood-boring parasites.[5]
References
- ^ Richardson, pp. 195.
- ^ Richardson, pp. 29.
- ^ Richardson, pp. 92.
- ^ Williams, Gomer (1897). History of the Liverpool Privateers and Letters of Marque. W. Heinemann. pp. 484–485. ISBN 9780722297797.
- ^ Richardson, pp. 240.
Sources
- Richardson, David (2007). Liverpool and Transatlantic Slavery. UK: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-1-84631-066-9.
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