by Murphy BrowneToronto, OntarioCanada

© Tuesday, October 27, 2015

It is almost the end of October: Women�s History Month in Canada and African History/Black History Month in the United Kingdom (UK.) The history of African women in the UK includes the first woman known to work as a sailor in the Royal Navy. "Seaman William Brown" was actually an African Caribbean woman (born in Grenada) who disguised herself as a man and sailed on the �HMS Queen Charlotte.� She was discharged on 19 June 1815 �for being a female.� Not much else is known about this young woman except what is written on page 64 of the �Annual Register� of 1815.

This information from the �UK National Archives� describes the young African woman who is recognized as the first woman sailor in the Royal Navy: �Amongst the crew of the Queen Charlotte, 110 guns, recently paid off, is now discovered, was a female African, who served as a seaman in the Royal Navy for upwards of eleven years, several of which she has been rated able on the books of the above ship by the name of William Brown, and has served for some time as the captain of the fore-top, highly to the satisfaction of the officers. She is a smart well formed-figure, about five feet four inches in height, possessed of considerable strength and great activity; her features are rather handsome for a black, and she appears to be about 26 years of age. Her share of prize money is said to be considerable, respecting which she has been several times within the last few days at Somerset-place. In her manner she exhibits all the traits of a British tar, and takes her grog with her late mess-mates with the greatest gaiety. She says she is a married woman; and went to sea in consequence of a quarrel with her husband, who, it is said, has entered a caveat against her receiving her prize money. She declares her intention of again entering the service as a volunteer."

The story of William Brown is also told in the 2012 published book �Black Salt: Seafarers of African Descent on British Ships� by African British historian Ray Costello. Costello wrote: �During the Napoleonic period, an intriguing story of an African woman serving as a sailor was reported in The Times of 2, September 1815. She was said to be a crew member of HMS Queen Charlotte and had ostensibly served in the Royal Navy for more than eleven years, having been an able seaman on several ships under the name of William Brown.�

There is no mention of the real name of the �woman in disguise sailor� who went by the name William Brown. There is no information about her life after she was discharged from the Royal Navy. If she left the ship in the UK then she was a free woman since slavery was illegal in the UK in 1815. However slavery in Grenada was legal until August 1, 1834 and �apprenticeship� which was just another name for the continuation of enslavement of Africans in the British colonized Caribbean islands ended on August 1, 1838.

How did an African woman enlist on a ship of the Royal Navy in the 1800s during slavery? According to Costello African men both enslaved and free were either forced or enticed to work as sailors on British ships from as early as 1702 when: �The Royal African Company orders enslaved young Africans for use on the company�s ships, known as �privilege negroes.�� Some of the enslaved African seamen were able to gain their freedom. Olaudah Equiano was one of the more famous Africans who managed to gain his freedom after being enslaved on a plantation in Montserrat. He had been enslaved from 1757 to 1766 during which time he worked for the seafaring men who enslaved him. He was bought and sold several times before gaining his freedom. He travelled to Britain, and in 1789

published his autobiography �The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano Or Gustavus Vassa, The African� which he used in the fight against slavery. He eventually became one of the best known African abolitionists.

Many of the enslaved Africans who worked as sailors gained their freedom by fleeing the ships when they docked in Britain. In his 2000 published book �Black Atlantic Politics: Dilemmas of Political Empowerment in Boston and Liverpool� African American historian William Edward Nelson Jr., wrote: �Black seamen attached to merchant ships began to make their permanent homes in Liverpool.�

There was an established African community in Liverpool after slavery was abolished in Britain 1772. In �Black Atlantic Politics� Nelson also wrote that: �The Black community in Liverpool is one of the oldest in Britain. The roots of the Liverpool Black community date back to at least the eighteenth century. Some members of Liverpool�s Black community entered as slaves. Evidence that Blacks were sold as slaves in Liverpool can be found in advertisements that appeared in local newspapers from 1750 through 1790. Slave auctions continued to be held in Liverpool up to 1780 despite the formal abolition of slavery in Great Britain in 1772.�

There was another wave of Africans who settled in Liverpool beginning after the American War of Independence when Africans who had fought on the side of the British were freed and became members of the United Empire Loyalists. Some of those African members of United Empire Loyalists were resettled in Liverpool while others were resettled in Canada.

The British had issued formal proclamations encouraging enslaved Africans to abandon their slave holders and serve in the military forces of the British monarchy. They were promised freedom in exchange for service in the war against their former American enslavers. The many Africans who fled their enslavers to serve the British in the war were United Empire Loyalists. The story of an African woman whose family was resettled in Canada as United Empire Loyalists is important as part of Canada�s history and �Women�s History.�

Rose Fortune who is recognized as Canada�s first female police officer was a child when she and her parents were resettled in Nova Scotia as members of the United Empire Loyalists. As an adult an enterprising Rose Fortune started her own business in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia carting luggage in a wheelbarrow from the ferry docks to inns and hotels. Fortune ran a successful business because many passengers were willing to pay to have their heavy luggage delivered to their doors.

She later instituted a curfew in the town maintaining order on the wharves and around the warehouses as the police officer of Annapolis Royal. Fortune was obviously an enterprising woman because �she also offered a wake-up service to customers to make certain they caught their boat to Digby or Saint John on time.� From Parks Canada website (http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/lhn-nhs/ns/fortanne/natcul/People/Fortune.aspx) there is this information about Fortune: �Around 1852, a Lieutenant-Colonel Sleigh of the 77th Regiment wrote of an encounter with Rose Fortune: �I was aided in my hasty efforts to quit the abominable inn [where he had been staying] by a curious old Negro woman, rather stunted in growth�and dressed in a man�s coat and felt hat. She had a small stick in her hand which she applied lustily to the back of all who did not jump instantly out of the way. She was evidently a privileged character.�� African Canadian Rose Fortune like African Caribbean sailor �William Brown� were both women before their time who operated outside of what was considered a woman�s place at the time they lived. Both of these women deserve to be placed in the history books.

by Murphy Browne

Toronto, Ontario

Canada

© Tuesday, October 27, 2015