Talk: Introduction to “Voyage of Despair. The Hannibal, its captain and all who sailed in her, 1693-1695”

Rosemary Caldicott will be giving a short introductory talk on Zoom about her new book “Voyage of Despair” on  Friday July 19th at 14:30 to Black History Conversations link here

The brutality of the slave trade.

In 1693, Captain Thomas Phillips embarked on a voyage from London to Guinea, where he purchased enslaved Africans on behalf of the Royal African Company. The subsequent journey across the Atlantic witnessed a tragic toll, with hundreds of the enslaved captives, and many of the crew, losing their lives before the ship reached the shores of Barbados.

Fast forward to 2010, three centuries later, in 2010, Brecon Town Council made a startling decision—to honour Captain Phillips with a plaque. Brecon Town Council’s decision to honour Captain Phillips with a plaque ignites controversy.

In this engaging and original narrative, Rosemary Caldicott analyses the pages of Phillips’s journal to reveal the day-to-day brutality that defined the triangular trade, uncovering the forgotten stories of the victims in this dark chapter in history. She also reveals the compelling story of the campaign to remove the plaque, a campaign that finally bore fruit amid the world-wide ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests that reached the heart of Brecon.