Showing results for "the-traders’-war:-the-merchant-princes-books-3-and-4" in Military

On 16 March 1807, the British Parliament passed The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. In the following year the Royal Navy's African Squadron was formed, its mission to stop and search ships at sea suspected of carrying slaves from Africa to the Americas and the Middle East. With typical thoroughness, the Royal Navy went further, and took the fight to the enemy, sailing boldly up uncharted rivers and creeks to attack the barracoons where the slaves were assembled ready for shipment.

In 1768, John Long set out from Gravesend in England, bound for Canada and a position as a clerk. Quickly developing an affection for the First Nations people he encountered, he determined to learn native languages and thereby make him useful in the 'Indian Trade' living first among Mohawks at Cahnuaga (Kahnawake) and later, among Ojibwa and Cree people north of Lake Superior. Long's journal provides a thrilling depiction the life of a fur trader in the late 18th century. It is a dangerous world, where starvation, torture, murder, war, disease and misfortune are constant threats.