Abolition

One of the exhibits will be a copy of Captain Hugh Crow's Memoirs, one of the last slave traders to operate into Liverpool and one of the very few to write about his experiences.

Nicknamed "One Eyed Crow", he always claimed to be very good to his slave cargo (there was a bonus for him if he brought a certain percentage back alive), even including in his book a song written in his honour by slaves he'd traded in the West Indies.

Captain Crow

So, with the help of the Bodleian Library, Professor John Caldwell from Oxford University and Poet Brian Levison, BBC Oxford has decided to revive this song and update it for the two hundredth anniversary.    

You can watch the full video by clicking on the link below.

Or read more about the background of how the project came about...

The Poet's View - Brian Levison

Brian Levison is a prize-winning poet who has published two books of poetry, Strange Smells of a Cat (Redbeck Press) and Adding an A (Ripostes). An oratorio Exodus for which he wrote the text was performed in 2004. A book about music Classical Music's Most Bizarre Concerts will be published in 2007 by Anova Press.

Brian Levison

"Never having heard of Captain Crow (1765-1829), I looked him up on the internet and found that he was that rarity, a humane late eighteenth century slave trader. "The Song Made by the people of Colour in Jamaica on Captain Hugh Crow" shows the respect in which he was held by people who were often subject to the harshest treatment.

It's in seven verses and written in a patois which would be difficult for modern audiences to understand at first hearing. My brief was to retain the original first verse and add a further seven verses of my own which retained the flavour of the original language and also reflect the occasion of the two hundredth anniversary of the abolition of slave trading.

Knowing that the plan was to have the song sung again by a new choir, I wanted there to be a rousing ending with a religious element. I would like to thank my partner Jill Haas for playing through the music for me and for one or two suggestions about the wording."

The Bodleian View - John Pinfold

The Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House has been collecting material on slavery and the slave trade since it was established in 1929, and its collections include many rare manuscripts and printed books and pamphlets on the subject. 'The Memoirs of Captain Hugh Crow', first published in 1830, are, as far as I am aware, the only memoirs of a former slave trade captain defending the trade, and are an important source for anyone seeking to understand the slave trade and the debates about its morality.

John Pinfold

From his memoirs Crow emerges as a man who had an extremely high opinion of himself and who never seriously questioned the morality of the trade in which he was engaged. Yet he was also a humane man who expressed a warm attachment towards many of the individual slaves, even going so far as to arm them when his ship came under attack from French privateers. It is clear that, surprising as it may seem, many of the slaves reciprocated his feelings, and this song is an expression of their regard for him. It has never been sung since Crow's day, and I am eagerly looking forward to hearing it.

As part of its contribution towards the commemoration of the two hundredth anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade, the Bodleian Library is publishing Crow's Memoirs in a new edition, which is available through the Bodleain bookshop (click on the link on the right).

The Musician's View - John Caldwell

The music of the song is a very straightforward, European-sounding melody; perhaps it had come over with a slave-owning family and had been learnt by their household slaves. The music was engraved on two plates and incorporated into Captain Crow's memoirs, and the remainder of the text was added on the next couple of pages.

John Caldwell (far right)

I decided to set the first stanza 'straight', as it were, except that it is now harmonized for four-part choir with piano accompaniment: the original accompaniment was just a bass-line with a few chords here and there. For the remaining stanzas I have varied the setting to match the ideas in Brian Levison's text: a swaying accompaniment in the second verse, for example, to suggest the motion of the ship as it sailed across the Atlantic from Liverpool. In the 4th verse I add the moaning of the wounded slaves whom Captain Crow visited in hospital, and in the final verse there is a joyous Hallelujah. Giving variety to the repetitions of the tune was an interesting and enjoyable challenge.