The Trial of Captain John Kimber, for the Murder of Two Female Negro Slaves, on Board the Recovery, African Slave Ship / Tried at the Admiralty Sessions, Held at the Old Baily, the 7th of June, 1792

by Student of the Temple

A. That was my first voyage, and it shall be my last.

The witness was re-examined by Mr. Attorney General, in order to account for some of those circumstances which came out on his cross examination, and might go to invalidate his testimony.

He said that he and the two boys were on the awning deck when the girl was suspended; that between this deck and the other part of the ship there was a barricade about nine feet high, which prevented those persons in the fore-part from seeing what was done abaft. By this means many of the ship’s crew, who were on deck, might have remained without seeing or knowing what was done to the girl. And this might have been the cause why the circumstance had not been generally spoken of on board. When I gave in my journal, said the witness, at Grenada, I wished to omit every mention of the Negro Girl, from the apprehensions I was under for my safety, not knowing what the prisoner might have done; I therefore wished to evade the oath which is made on those occasions, and accordingly when the officer tendered it to me I took the book from him, and returned it without kissing it: he was sitting at a desk and did not see me.

The witness requested that the Court would examine the log book, where they should see that this death, which he omitted in his journal, did really happen. And the prisoner he said had told him that a journal was a mere matter of form.

He said also that when Mr. Lloyd and Mr. Wilberforce had examined him relative to the firing upon the Town of Calabar, the latter gentleman questioned him as to the treatment of the slaves on board the ships, and it was upon that occasion he told him the circumstance of the murder for which the prisoner was now indicted; without having had the remotest intention of prosecuting him. And he moreover observed that outrages of that nature were so common on board the slave ships, that they were looked upon with as much indifference as any trifling occurrence; their frequency had rendered them familiar.

Stephen Devereux, the next witness on the side of the prosecution, was examined by Mr. Solicitor General.

He deposed, that he had sailed to the coast of Guinea in the Wasp, from whence after he arrived there, he changed as third mate into the Recovery, which sailed from Africa on the first of September; he remembered the deceased Negro Girl very well: after he had been ten days on board, he saw Captain Kimber endeavouring to straiten her knees which were bent and contracted, and afterwards flogging her with a whip. While I was standing said the witness, on the starboard side of the quarter deck, I saw the girl running up by the gun takle, which was fastened by a block to the mizen stay: she was suspended by one of her arms, and continued raised above the deck for four or five minutes; she was let down, and lifted up again by the other arm, and Pearson the boy who held the takle jerked the fall: In this situation the boys were endeavouring to make her legs strait. She was taken up the third time by one leg, and the fourth time by the other; after which she was suffered to remain on the deck for some time. In this situation with her head drooping between her knees, Captain Kimber, who was present during the whole of her torture, lifted her up, gave her a slap on the face, and said the bitch is sulky: and then again endeavoured to straiten the contraction in the knees, with the intention of inflicting punishment on her. The fifth and last time she was lifted up by both hands, but her feet touched the deck; and in this posture the prisoner flogged her severely. When she was about going down the hatchway he would not suffer any body to assist her, but said the bitch is sulky she must find her own way. After she had got down two or three steps with great struggling and difficulty, she slipt along the rest of the ladder. All this happened in the morning.

I saw her the next day, and helped her up on deck: she was in a very filthy and shocking condition, quite weak and feeble, her body was covered with whales and bruises; she was not put down along with the other women; but was suffered to languish until she died, on the third day after the suspension.

Q. What other persons belonging to the ship’s company were in sight of this business, besides the Captain, the Surgeon, and yourself?