The Mothership Connection

If it was not slavery—It was rather complete service to humanityUnstinted humble-effortFoolishness to the worldBut bolder and braverThan any of history’s warriors

If it was not slavery—It was the activationOf the Cosmic-blueprints . . .Sowing seeds of cosmos rareCasting ever down to ever lift above

If it was not slaveryIt was the freedom not to beIn order to ready for the discipline-planeFrom other-greater-worlds.

—Sun Ra, “Of the Cosmic Blueprints” (1968, Umbra)

“The Supposed Murder”

The year is 1792. Captain John Kimber of the slave ship Recovery stands trial in Bristol for the murder of an African girl during the passage from Calabar to Grenada. The alleged reason for his violence: the girl would not “dance.” That’s slaver parlance for exercise, but who knows what Kimber had in mind. The fact was, however, that the anonymous female would not oblige his command, refused to dance, and in a fit of pique, Kimber strung her up (Figure 1). Literally. Here’s how witness Stephen Devereaux remembers it in the courtroom. He’s responding to questions put by examiner John Scott:

Did you ever see him flog her? I have; I saw the girl run up, by a gun tackle, by one arm.

(Trial of Kimber 33)

Devereaux testifies that Kimber hoisted her up first by one arm, then the other. Next by each ankle, dangling her in midair like an unruly beast. Each time for four to five minutes:

When she was hoisted up the fifth time what was done? Her legs were on the deck, Captain Kimber flogged her; he endeavoured to straighten her leg, and desired [the mate] to jerk the tackle.

(34)

Using either a cat-o-ninetails or a horsewhip—the testimony is un-clear—Captain Kimber raked the girl’s body until it bled. The ship’s surgeon, Thomas Dowling, also witnessed the ordeal, as he testifies in response to questions by the examiner Pigot:

Did you observe any thing particular in the treatment she received . . . ? Yes I did. Describe it? He then flogged her when she was suspended. Each time, or once or twice?

Figure 1.

Isaac Cruikshank, Abolition of the Slave Trade: Or the inhumanity of dealers in human flesh exemplified in Captn. Kimber’s treatment of a young Negro girl of 15 for her virjen [sic] modesty (London, 1792). Library of Congress.

The last time, while she was suspended by both hands, she was flogged by Captain Kimber with his whip; I cannot state the time when this passed; it was about three weeks after our sailing, and he flogged her for three or four days.

(16)

All because, in Dowling’s words, “the girl would not get up to dance with the other girls and women” (29). Asked if anything else happened while she was on deck, Devereaux reported the following: “The captain put his hand upon her knees, and I am almost certain he gave her a slap on the face, and said ‘the bitch is sulky’” (34).

The sulky bitch convulsed and died. But did Kimber’s beatings kill her? Most assuredly, in the opinion of the ship’s surgeon: “she was rather emaciated; but I think and confidently believe the convulsions were occasioned by the floggings, and that her death was occasioned by the convulsions” (18). Third mate Common Searjeant concurs: “I verily believe that punishment was the cause of her death; if it had not have been so, I think she would have gone to market” (37). Not only has Kimber’s cruelty killed a girl, apparently, but it’s compromised the market value of his cargo, an offense prohibited if nothing else by the economic logic of commerce. Pigot presumes the whole crew to have been shocked: “Pray, sir, I take it for granted then, that this must have occasioned on board the ship a great deal of attention, discussion, and observation upon it?” Surgeon Dowling makes terse, mordant reply: “No, sir, such things are customary on board slave ships” (19–20).

An...