Humphry Morice Slave Journal

Slave Journals of Humphry Morice
The ‘Slave Journals of Humphry Morice’ is a primary source used to show the occurrences of the Royal African Company and instructions used in trade. I will discuss the source in detail explaining several factors, for example intended audience, why it was written and my personal reflection of the source. I will also be used to talk the source specially and the structure of the source.
‘Slave Journals of Humphry Morice’, this is a series of instructions written by Humphry Morice to the commander of his ship. Humphry Morice was someone who was involved in the slave trade. He was the man behind the scenes of a campaign; he employed people to do the work for him and watched the profits role in while he stayed at
This is so he can remain on task and be certain he knows what he is doing and that what he is doing is right. This takes pressure of him because now all the guidance has been set by Humphry all the commander needs to do is follow the instructions given. By following these guidelines it means the commander is doing his job correctly and therefore following what has been asked of him. It is also used to ensure that there are no large mistakes made during the voyage and if plans change there are backup plans to follow. The document is informative, it is informative as it is written to inform the commander of his duties and what is expected of him. It is used to point out what tasks and duties he needs to do and certain objectives he must achieve while on board. Humphry tells him what he is to do when he reaches each point for example, how he is to handle the buying of slaves. He also is told by Humphry to make sure the slaves are well looked after this is probably a marketing tactic by Humphry so that the slaves look well and that he can sell them for more money. A basic assumption made in the document is that Humphry Morice was actually rather nice to the slaves he bought as he wanted them to be treated well and not abused. This is true but he does also call them “Negros” throughout the document this means he is still undermining them. He does want the slaves to be
He would have wanted to make as much profit as possible so by plotting out a strict plan he could ensure total control over the process. He would make sure everything was done his way as this was also his way of showing he was in charge. He wanted everything to do be done in a specific way for a specific reason otherwise he would not have said. I do believe this source as there was no reason to lie when giving these instructions as it would only have disadvantaged him and his profit. He may slightly hide some truths of on board the ship but conclusively I do believe what he says is what he wants. I learn that the society that Humphry Morice was from is completely different to that of today. The society believed in human ownership something that is extremely illegal today. People see slavery today as some disgusting thing that does not much gets discussed due to people’s strong opposition to it. But the society is not that long ago not as long as today’s people would like to believe, not long ago slavery was not frond upon and in fact very much used by the British. Words that are used such as “Negro” so the attitude towards slaves they were treated worse than animals. This is absurdly wrong, why should one human be treated differently to another it just goes to show how much difference a couple hundred years makes. Human rights in today’s terms must be strictly followed whereas then it