The journal of a slave trader

"From 1750 to 1754 John Newton was Master of slave ships (a quite respectable occupation), and the journal which he then kept has ever since been locked away, unseen by any historian and only quoted briefly by one of his biographers. It is unique as a record of the slave trade. It covers three voyages from England to Africa, giving details about months of trading on the west coast, the notorious 'middle passage' to the West Indies and the return voyages to England, and is an important addition to our information about slave trading, about the history of West Africa and, to a lesser extent, about life at sea in the mid-eighteenth century. The editors have omitted passages which are repetitive and have included a few extracts from Newton's diary and letters written from sea at the same time as the journal, so that Newton's character while he was engaged in this shocking trade is revealed to an astonishing degree. Later, when Newton was a clergyman and the intimate friend of the poet Cowper, he wrote hymns which are still popular and books which were reprinted again and again all through the nineteenth century. His flair for literature adds to the fascination of the journal. On the title page of the journal Newton wrote a Latin tag, 'It will be pleasant to remember these things hereafter,' but in middle age he described the slave trade as 'a business at which my heart now shudders.' He became an abolitionist and was largely responsible for bringing Wilberforce into the anti-slavery campaign. With the journal before him to refresh his memory, he also wrote Thoughts on the African Slave Trade, a pamphlet which supplements the journal and is included as an appendix."--Book jacket.