Black metallurgists and the making of the industrial revolution: History and Technology: Vol 39, No 1

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ABSTRACT

Metallurgy is the art and science of working metals, separating them from other substances and removing impurities. This paper is concerned with the Black metallurgists on whose art and science the intensive industries; military bases; and maritime networks of British enslaver colonialism in eighteenth-century Jamaica depended. To engage with these metallurgists on their own terms, the paper brings together oral histories and material culture with archives, newspapers, and published works. By focusing on the practices and priorities of Jamaica’s Black metallurgists, the significance and reach of their work begins to be uncovered. Between 1783 and 1784 financier turned ironmaster, Henry Cort, patented a process of rendering scrap metal into valuable bar iron. For this ‘discovery’, economic and industrial histories have lauded him as one of the revolutionary makers of the modern world. This paper shows how the myth of Henry Cort must be revised with the practices and purposes of Black metallurgists in Jamaica, who developed one of the most important innovations of the industrial revolution for their own reasons.

KEYWORDS:

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Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the two anonymous reviewers and the editors, Professors Tiago Saraiva and Amy Slaton, as well as Professors Kenneth Bilby, Philip Burnham, David Edgerton, Christopher Evans (McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research), Dániel Margócsy, Simon Schaffer, and Jim Secord for their invaluable comments, support, and encouragement. I am also grateful to Rokia Ballo, Ashley Jones, John Shorter and Drs Nathan Bossoh and Sheray Warmington, for conversations that informed this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

NEWSPAPERS

Aberdeen Press and Journal.
Caledonian Mercury.
Cambridge Chronicle and Journal.
Champion.
Chester Chronicle.
Commercial Chronicle.
Cornwall Chronicle.
Dublin Evening Post.
Englishman.
Exeter Flying Post.
Hereford Journal.
Hull Packet.
Jamaica Mercury.
Kingston Journal.
Manchester Mercury.
Norfolk Chronicle.
Royal Gazette of Jamaica.
Saunders’s News-Letter.
Savanna-la-Mar Gazette.
South Carolina Gazette.
South Eastern Gazette.
Staffordshire Advertiser.
Stamford Mercury.
Star.
Sun.
The Daily Advertiser.
The London Magazine.
The Manchester Mercury.
The News.
The Perthshire Courier.
The Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser.
The Scots Magazine.

ONLINE SOURCES

Voyages: The Transatlantic Slave Trade Database https://www.slavevoyages.org/assessment/estimates (accessed: 18 February 2023).
Measuring Worth, www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/ (accessed: 18 February 2023).
Gibson, Lydia, “Journal #Mermay: Mami Wata Thursday 7th May 2019,” http://www.whatiswild.com/Journal.html (accessed 6 April 2023).

PATENTS

Henry Cort, 1783, Cort’s Method of Preparing, Welding and Working Iron, (1783), Patent No. 1351.
Henry Cort, Manufacture of iron, (1784), Patent No. 1420.

Notes

1. Münzer, [1494–5], Doctor Hieronymus Münzer’s Itinerary, 92–3.

2. For enslaver prestige culture, see Münzer, [1494–5], Doctor Hieronymus Münzer’s Itinerary, 93; and Saunders, Black Slaves and Freedmen in Portugal, 1441–1555, 176–7.

3. Bigelow, Mining Language; Carney and Rosomoff, In the Shadow of Slavery; Carney, Black Rice; d’Avignon, A Ritual Geology; Ford, The role of the trypanosomiases in African ecology, 333–5; Gómez, The experiential Caribbean; Hill, “Making Scientific Sense of Traditional Medicine”; Kananoja, “Infected by the Devil, Cured by Calundu”; Kananoja, Healing Knowledge in Atlantic Africa; La Fleur, Fusion Foodways of Africa’s Gold Coast in the Atlantic Era; Logan, The Scarcity Slot; Murphy, “Translating the vernacular”; Osseo-Asare, Bitter roots; Osseo-Asare, “Bioprospecting and Resistance”; Parrish, “Diasporic African Sources of Enlightenment Knowledge”; Roberts, To Heal and to Harm; Sluyter, Black ranching frontiers; Sweet, Domingos Álvares.

4. Edgerton, “From innovation to use”; and c.f. discussion of shipbreaking in Alang, Gujarat, India, Edgerton, The Shock of the Old, 208.

5. For the mid-nineteenth century construction of Cort as heroic inventor, see MacLeod, “Concepts of invention”; MacLeod, Heroes of Invention, 249–279. For industrial and economic histories that have identified Henry Cort as one of the top ten ‘macroinventors’ of the industrial revolution, see Allen, The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective, 243. Mokyr, The enlightened economy.

6. Voyages, https://www.slavevoyages.org/assessment/estimates; Burnard, Planters, Merchants, and Slaves, 170–3; Eltis, “The Volume and Structure of the Transatlantic Slave Trade,” Table IV.

7. For the development of iron smelting and smithing in first millennium AD coastal Ghana, see DeCorse, “Coastal Ghana in the First and Second Millennia AD”; and Chouin Forests of power and memory, 719–43; For the displacement of iron working societies, long distance exports, and iron industrial complexes as refuge and place for the exchange of ideas in first and second millennium Southern Ghana, see Pole, “The Hammers of the Mawu”; For the increase in iron production from the fourteenth century in Bassar, Togo, see Barros, “Bassar”; For the early origins of iron production in Igboland and the specialisation of industrial production complexes, growth of centres and itineracy of smiths (who were also often linguists) from c.500 AD, see Njoku, A history of iron technology in Igboland; For the early development of iron smelting centres in Cameroon, see Clist, “West-Central African Diversity from the Stone Age to the Iron Age,” 77–9; For iron and agricultural developments (Asiatic complex of cultigens) linked to population growth, and for the internal (i.e. African) long-distance trade ‘as old as iron production in the Grassfields’, see Warnier, Cameroon Grassfields Civilization, 20, 44,

8. Brown, Tacky’s Revolt, 85–128.

9. C.f. Saraiva, “Black Science”; Shilliam, “Race and Revolution at Bwa Kayiman”; Soto Laveaga and Gómez, “Thinking with the World.”

10. Münzer, [1494–5], Doctor Hieronymus Münzer’s Itinerary, 251.

11. For the poor quality of European copper manillas, see Ulsheimer, [1603–4], f.34b in Jones, German Sources for West African History, 27.

12. For the account of the cast copper in the Benin palace, see Dapper, [1668], Naukeurige Beschrijvinge Der Afrikaensche Gewesten, 495–6.

13. Green, “Africa and the Price Revolution,” 6, 19; Green, A Fistful of Shells; Ogundiran, “Of small things remembered”; Vogt, “Portuguese gold trade,” 94; Neaher, “Igbo metalsmiths among the Southern Edo,” 46.

14. Drewal, “Iron’s Empowering Presence,” 97, fig. 3.18.

15. Altar-ring, Edo State, Benin City, circa sixteenth-nineteenth century, British Museum, Museum No. Af1897,1011.5. For iron cores as a notable feature of Benin ritual altar rings see, Vogel, “Rapacious Birds and Severed Heads,” 333.

16. Barnes has described these mutually constituted principles in African and African diaspora ironworking as the “sacred iron complex” most often expressed as the ideas that iron is sacred; ironworkers are exceptional members of society who are either feared or revered; and iron workplaces are sanctuaries for the dispossessed. Barnes, Africa’s Ogun, 4.

17. For classic work based on a survey of twentieth century ethnographies and material culture, see Herbert, “Iron, Gender, and Power”; For examples of iron as a material of power in the Banda region of west-central Ghana, 1300–1900 AD, see Stahl, “Efficacious Objects and Techniques of the Subject,” 197–236.

18. Insoll, “Meyer Fortes and material culture”; Pole, “The Hammers of the Mawu.”

19. “They are usually content with a hard fight … [war] comes to an end in two or three days” in Müller, [1662–9], 138 in Jones, German Sources for West African History, 198.

20. “Wy het haar zelfs in overvloed verkoopen … want zoo wy het al niet en deeden, zoo zoudenze het dog genoeg konnen krijgen van de Engelse, Deenen, en Brandenburgers” in Bosman, [1704], Nauwkeurige beschryving van de Guinese Goud-, Tand- en Slave-kust 1, 176; see also enslavers hopeful conflict will bring captives in William Snelgrave, Onboard the Henry, Annamaboo, 13 December 1721, Bank of England, (20A67/4/1/2), fol. 70, 1, 6; enslavers promised captives as an outcome of conflict in Thomas Hill, Whydah, 17 May 1731, Bank of England, (20A67/4/1/1), fol. 38, 6; enslaver complaining of shortage of captives due to ‘Dahaughmmy [sic]’ defeat in Hill, Barbados, 24 Jan 1732, Bank of England, (20A67/4/1/1), fol. 41.

21. Hill, Annamaboo, 7 March 1731, describes war leaving only about “8,000 [people], who are all fled to the other side of the River Volta … ” Bank of England, (20A67/4/1/1), fol. 40; c.f. the movement of people described in Pole, “The Hammers of Mawu,” 67–75.

22. Njoku, A history of iron technology in Igboland; Njoku, “Magic, religion and iron technology in precolonial north-western Igboland.”

23. Oriji, “Slave trade, warfare and Aro expansion in the Igbo hinterland.”

24. For strategies of resistance, see Oriji, “Igboland, Slavery, and the Drums of War and Heroism”; for the connection between smithing and medicine in this region, see Njoku, A history of iron technology in Igboland, 101–2; also c.f. blacksmithing as preparatory foundation to the work of ritual and healing in late nineteenth century Akan society, Konadu, Our Own Way in This Part of the World, 96; for the resistance of captives, see Hill, Whydah, 27 May 1731, Bank of England, (20A67/4/1/1), fol. 43, 1; and Snelgrave, Barbados, 6 April 1722, Bank of England, (20A67/4/1/2), fol. 68. For a connection between iron bars and medicine in coastal Ghana, see Chouin, Forests of Power and Memory 446.

25. Oriji, “Igboland, Slavery, and the Drums of War and Heroism,” 124–5.

26. “Costoro hanno un’antica predizione, la quale minaccia la morte ad uno di quei Rè per mano di un’Europeo” in Cavazzi da Montecuccoli, [1687], Istorica descrizione de tre regni, 578.

27. Up to the mid-seventeenth century the Gold Coast imported rather than exported people, with European enslavers trafficking an estimated one hundred thousand people into the Gold Coast from other parts of Africa. Kea, Settlements, 105–6. Nor did this practice stop with the onset of the transatlantic human trade on the Gold Coast. For example, in October 1710 the British enslaver John Gordon described buying 115 people for 3,000 iron bars at the head of the River Gambia with the intention of selling them in exchange for goods on the Gold Coast, John Gordon, Galena, October 1710, Bank of England, (20A67/4/1/1), fol. 31. For an example of ritual responses to pre-Atlantic enslavement, see the manacle votives in the British Museum (2007,2014.8; 2007,2014.9) and others described in Stahl, “Archaeological Insights into Aesthetic Communities of Practice in the Western Volta Basin.”

28. “Everything is reduced to these two sorts of goods [cowries and iron]”; “We adjusted with them the reduction of our merchandize into bars of iron, as the standard coin, viz … ” Barbot [1699] in Hair, Jones, Law, Barbot on Guinea, 637; 689

29. Jobson, [1623], The Golden Trade, 120–1.

30. C.f. how blacksmiths among the Mande in the 1970s fulfilled the role of mediators and intermediaries in conflicts and negotiations, McNaughton, The Mande Blacksmiths, 64–5. In her classic survey of twentieth-century cosmologies of ironworking in Sub-Saharan Africa, Herbert also describes “the ambivalence of the smith’s role: he makes instruments of both production and destruction and, especially in West Africa, serves as mediator. Indeed, the smithy is often a place of asylum.” Herbert, Iron, Gender, and Power, 107.

31. Vansina, “Linguistic Evidence for the Introduction of Ironworking into Bantu-Speaking Africa,” 329.

32. Njoku, A History of Iron Technology in Igboland, 259.

33. van Dantzig, “The Akanists,” 205.

34. C.f. Stahl’s argument that ritual and aesthetic iron working practice in the Western Volta Basin should be understood in a context of shifting interregional exchange, rather than in terms of specific ethnic/linguistic groups, Stahl, “Archaeological insights into Aesthetic Communities of Practice in the Western Volta Basin.”

35. “£359 3s 6d to Mr Thomas Westerne for Iron” shipped January 1657, (fol. 56), in British Library (IOR/B/26); “Iron for 1220 barrs – £406 5s 5d” shipped, July 1658, (fol. 67); “Iron 2000 barrs … £656 07s 10d” shipped, Oct 1658, (fol. 76); “Iron 1660 barrs … £346 17s 10d” (smaller bars) shipped, Feb 1659, (fol. 84); “3000 barrs of Swedish iron … £826 15s 4d” shipped, August 1659, (fol. 113); “Iron 1500 barrs … £415 5s 10d” shipped, November 1659, (fol.128); “Iron 2000 barrs. £564 10s” shipped, December 1659, (fol. 133); “Iron 2012 barrs … £657 6s 10d” shipped, April 1660, (fol. 156); “Iron 3000 barrs … £846 11s 9d” shipped, Sept 1660, (fol. 163); “Iron 660 barrs … £208 1s 8d” shipped, Nov 1660, (fol.175), British Library, (IOR/E/3/85); “Iron 12,095 Barrs … £3676 17s 2d” shipped, September 1661, (fol.31); “13488 Barrs Iron … £3889 9s 8d … 1197 barrs Iron … £322 7s 6d” (the two sets of bars represent two different sizes) shipped, Nov 1661, (fol.31); “Iron 1495 Barrs … £405 2s” shipped, July 1662, (fol. 75), British Library, (IOR/E/3/86).

36. Chouin, Forests of Power and Memory, 489; 718–9; 728.

37. For descriptions of status swords, see Bosman, [1704], Nauwkeurige beschryving van de Guinese Goud-, Tand- en Slave-kust, eerste deel, 176–7; Müller, [1662–9], 129–32, in Jones, German Sources for West African History, 194–5; de Gémozac, [1671], “Visit to the ‘Governor’ of Akitekyi,” in Chouin, Colbert et la Guinée, 126. See also Chouin Forests of power and memory, for the suggestion the sword was made locally, see 728; and for relevant discussion of material culture in changing practices and systems of thought, see 650–1; For the role of smiths in making and fastening shackles and chains, see Hemmersam, [1639–45], 55 in Jones, German Sources for West African History, 113.

38. National Archives, (T/70/22), fol. 37–8.

39. Barbot, [1711–2], A Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea, 273–4.

40. “3000 barrs of Swedish iron … £826 15s 4d” shipped, August 1659, British Library, (IOR/E/3/85), fol. 113.

41. To give two examples of many: “the people begin to aske for iron barrs and I have a great many but they doe not like them, for they must be all marked and noe flau’s in them,” Richard Thelwall, Annamaboe, 17 July 1683 in Law, The English in West Africa 1, 137; “I want [iron bars] which are good and marked, for none else vends here. I have a great many here which are not so qualified” Ralph Hassell, Anamaboe, 27 June 1687 in Law, The English in West Africa 2, 209.

42. Thomas Wilkieson, Amsterdam, 19 October 1723, National Archives, (T/70/25).

43. William Hagan, Amsterdam, 7 January 1724, National Archives, (T/70/25).

44. Hagan, Amsterdam, 18 April 1724, National Archives, (T/70/25).

45. “Their iron is much harder than ours,” Rømer, [1760], A Reliable Account of the Coast of Guinea: 24. “Dese Sabels sijn seer swaar/hegt, en stark, … ” Bosman, [1704], Nauwkeurige beschryving van de Guinese Goud-, Tand- en Slave-kust 1, 176.

46. For seminal studies showing the increase to massive industrial scale iron production in response to the Atlantic trade, see Warnier & Fowler, “A Nineteenth-century Ruhr in Central Africa”; Fowler, Babungo; Barros, “Bassar”; For the increase in trends described earlier (e.g. proliferation of smiths, long-distance travel, expansion of old sites and seeding of new), see Njoku, A History of Iron Technology in Igboland; For expansion of domestic production on the seventeenth century Gold Coast, see Chouin, Forests of Power and Memory, 650–1; 721–735. For studies that describe increase in production and long-distance exports together with immigration of metallurgists seeking work or escaping conflicts and raids, see Barros, “The Effect of the Slave Trade on the Bassar Ironworking Society, Togo” and Pole, “The Hammers of Mawu.”

47. Equiano, [1789], The interesting narrative 1, 51.

48. Dapper, [1668], Naukeurige Beschrijvinge Der Afrikaensche Gewesten, 495–6.

49. de Gémozac, [1671], “Visit to the ‘Governor’ of Akitekyi,” in Chouin, Colbert et la Guinée, 126; and Chouin, Forests of power and memory, 650–1; 728.

50. The highly variable trade recorded in the diaries of British forts on the Gold Coast show that iron bars continued to be traded from forts alongside other manufactured goods, primarily for gold, and that the small but frequent presence of iron bars in exchanges were complemented by sudden spikes where large volumes were traded in short periods. For example, Fort Succondee [sic] traded 543 iron bars for gold in the two-month period 1 July to 31 August 1730 alone, (fol. 35). No iron bars were traded from Succondee [sic] during the same period the following year, (fol. 51), but significant quantities of iron bars had been traded from Commenda (fol. 78) in previous months and were subsequently traded from Tantumquerry (fol. 108) later in the year, National Archives, (T/70/1466). The demand for gold among both European and African traders was particularly intense in the period of early Asante state-building. As such, forts using iron to purchase gold in this period is another indicator of iron’s continuing value and significance. For the demand for gold in the Royal Africa Company, see “they bought their gold too dear,” Hippisley, [1764], Essays, vii and for European perceptions of gold in Asante state-building, see Bosman, [1704], Nauwkeurige beschryving van de Guinese Goud-, Tand- en Slave-kust 1, 12; 179; In addition, note that Britain’s competitors, such as the Danish, continued to ship iron to the Gold Coast in significant quantities, ‘Jern, 1,000’, June 1733, Rigsarkivet, (V-G K), (G)-(G), fol.179.

51. Metal cloth was another symbol of power on the Gold Coast. According to Asante oral history, in the time of Osei Tutu, (prior to the Denkyira war and defeat at Feyiase in 1701), there was one very powerful chief who had an iron tunic (Dadie batakari). The iron-clad chief was described as supporting the Takyinanhene. Agyeman-Duah, Ashanti stool histories, 4. Other examples of iron in Asante ritual objects include ritual staffs such as “afenatene,” a staff forged from three swords, (Museum No. Af1978,22.830) and an iron ritual calendar (Af1952,24.6.a-c), both in the British Museum.

52. For the tension of placing Mpɔnpɔnsɔn over Bosomuru, see McCaskie, “Telling the tale of Osei Bonsu.”

53. Otumfuo, History of the Ashanti, 218.

54. Ampene, Engaging Modernity; McCaskie, “Unspeakable Words, Unmasterable Feelings.”

55. Ross, “The iconography of Asante sword ornaments,” 16.

56. Müller, [1662–9], 86–7, in Jones, German Sources for West African History, 175–6. For the difference between a state oath that derives power from recalling past events of unspeakable pain, and a minor oath that is drunk rather than sworn, see Quamie-Kyiamah, “The Customary Oath in the Gold Coast,” 141.

57. Letter from Director-General Willem Butler and Council, Elmina, 27 March, 1719, Nationaal Archief, (104), (D.2.1), (1.), (1.05.01.02), fol. 265.

58. Sir Challoner Ogle, 1733 May, Kingston at Port Royal, National Archives, (ADM 106/848/42).

59. 20 April 1731, National Archives, (ADM 106/834/72); Captain Andrew Durnford to Duke of Richmond, “legislative decisions on the payment of [Black] artificers and labourers,” 1 June 1791, National Archives, (CO 37/43/7), fol.31–4; Henry Hamilton to Henry Dundas, Reports on the Island’s internal security, 20 January 1792, NA (CO 37/43/26), fol.253; Edward Mathew to Lord Sydney, “for the assistance of 150 Black artisans for the Repairs and additions to their fortifications,” 13 September 1784, National Archives, (CO 101/25/47), fol. 227; Lord Sydney to Edward Mathew, 5 October 1784, National Archives, (CO 101/25/47), fol. 207–8; Archibald Dow and Daniel Scarville, Antigua, “Account of Artificers who were discharged for what reason,” May 1786, National Archives, (ADM 106/1286), fol. 23.

60. For the significance of the name Kojo, see Brown, Tacky’s Revolt, 90–2.

61. For the treaties, see Bilby, “Swearing by the Past.”

62. John Lewis to James Knight, 20 December 1743, Miscellaneous Papers and original Letters relating to the affairs of Jamaica, British Library, (Add MS 12431), fol. 99–100.

63. “Mfena (swords, plural),” Ampene, Engaging Modernity; Bilby, True Born Maroons, 17.

64. Sivapragasam, After the Treaties, 19–45.

65. Ibid, 70–85.

66. Daniels, “The Origin of the Sugarcane Roller Mill,” 495.

67. Dubois and Garrigus, Slave Revolution in the Caribbean, 4–5, 9; Sheridan, “Changing sugar technology,” 68.

68. Delle and Fellows, “Repurposed Metal Objects,” 1000; 1019.

69. c.f. Bigelow, Mining Language, 111–2.

70. Kippax, [1751], The Theory and Practice of Commerce, 315–6.

71. Stammers, “Iron knees in wooden vessels,” 115.

72. Solar and Rönnbäck, “Copper sheathing and the British slave trade,” 825.

73. Gille, “Naval Artillery,” 406; for discussion of iron guns as trade goods and currency in West Africa in this period and through abolition see, Satia, Empire of Guns, 188–90.

74. Britain, [1779], An Act for the more effectually preventing the pernicious practices of smuggling.

75. Sutherland, [1764], An Attempt to Ascertain, 289.

76. Nicholson, [1825], The Operative Mechanic, viii; 338.

77. Anderson, [1764], An Historical and Chronological Deduction, 283.

78. Alexander Spotswood to the Council of Trade and Plantations, 4 March 1728, National Archives, (CO 323/8) fol. 85; Oast, Institutional Slavery, 208.

79. “Journal, January 1719, Journal Book V,” in Ledward, [1718–22], Journals of the Board of Trade and Plantations, 16–32.

80. Sir Challoner Ogle, 1733 May, Kingston at Port Royal, National Archives (ADM 106/848/42).

81. Admiral William Parry to the Commissioners of the Navy, 26 June 1768, National Archives (ADM 106/1170), fol. 206.

82. Richard Taylor, estate of John Gardiner, “Notice,” Kingston Journal, November 29, 1760.

83. George Cameron, Dean’s Valley estate, Westmoreland, formerly of St Elizabeth’s, “Notice,” Royal Gazette of Jamaica, July 1, 1780.

84. John Stewart, Savanna-la-Mar, “Notice,” Savanna-la-Mar Gazette, July 15, 1788.

85. William Tait, Annotto Bay, St George’s, “Notice,” Royal Gazette of Jamaica, July 29, 1826.

86. For pre-1800s examples see, Richard Taylor, estate of John Gardiner, “Notice,” Kingston Journal, November 29, 1760; John Graat, “Notice,” Parish St James, Cornwall Chronicle, May 30, 1776; John Grant, “Notice,” Hanover, Jamaica Mercury, September 20, 1779; Henry Farquharson, Montego Bay, “Notice,” Jamaica Mercury, September 20, 1779; Anon., Portland, “Notice,” Jamaica Mercury, March 11, 1780; Peter Parr in Jamaica, Journals of the House of the Assembly of Jamaica, November 30, 1781; Alex Farquharson, Montego Bay, “Notice,” Cornwall Chronicle, November 7, 1789; George Cameron, Dean’s Valley estate, Westmoreland, formerly of St Elizabeth’s, “Notice,” Royal Gazette of Jamaica, July 1, 1780; John Crawford, Harbour St. near Orange St, Kingston, “Notice,” Royal Gazette of Jamaica, August 24, 1781; John Stewart, Savanna-la-Mar, “Notice,” Savanna-la-Mar Gazette, July 15, 1788; Simon Finchett, Peter Flood, Montego Bay, “Notice,” Cornwall Chronicle, July 2, 1791; Thomas Cockburn, Alley, Vere, “Notice,” Royal Gazette of Jamaica, Saturdays January 12 − March 30, 1793; Smith & Logan, Alley, Vere, “Notice,” Royal Gazette of Jamaica, Saturdays January 12 − March 30, 1793; Thomas Wilkie, Montego Bay, “Notice,” Cornwall Chronicle, November 3, 1793).

87. Mitchill, [1797], “Affinities of Septic Fluids in other Bodies,” 13.

88. John Graat, Parish St James, “Notice,” Cornwall Chronicle, May 30, 1776.

89. Anon., Portland, “Notice,” Jamaica Mercury, March 11, 1780.

90. Smith and Logan, Alley, Vere, “Notice,” Royal Gazette of Jamaica, Saturdays January 12 − March 30, 1793.

91. Archibald Campbell to George Germain, “military works being undertaken on forts and fortifications of Jamaica,” September 26, 1781, National Archives, (CO 137/81/13), fol. 96–99.

92. Sheridan, “Changing Sugar Technology,” 68–9; Singerman, “The Limits of Chemical Control in the Caribbean Sugar Factory,” 42–7.

93. Edgerton, “From Innovation to Use”; and c.f. Edgerton, The Shock of the Old, 208.

94. Goucher excavated John Reeder’s Foundry between 1989 and 1993. Elements of the report appear in many publications by Goucher, but for the first and fullest report see Goucher, “African Metallurgy in the Atlantic World,” 204–12.

95. Copy memorandum of Eliza L. Crosse concerning Reeder’s appeal, c. 1850, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/30).

96. “TO BE SOLD,” Morant Bay, The Daily Advertiser, May 28, 1791.

97. Stephen Fuller, agent for Jamaica, to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, June 17, 1788, National Archives (CO 137/87), fol. 43; Copy: Fuller to Chancellor, 1788, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/7).

98. Indenture, April 29, 1772, between Edmund Duany and John Reeder, Jamaica Records Office, 91. I am indebted to Ashley Jones for a scan of this document.

99. Report on consequences of dismantling the foundry, to Pitt, May 1789, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/16).

100. Copy memorandum of Eliza L. Crosse concerning Reeder’s appeal, c. 1850, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/30).

101. “Being asked what quantity of iron manufactures were now made in the plantations, [Mr Carey] said there were none, but for their own private use, except some few pots and backs exported to the Sugar Islands.” “Journal, June 1735, Volume 44,” in Ledward, [1718–22], Journals of the Board of Trade, 17–33.

102. “The bed of this ore begins about four hundred yards below the hot spring of Bath, and extends along the western bank of the rivulet, on both sides of the road, for nearly three quarters of a mile.” To extract this ore, Reeder determined to “erect mills and furnaces near and upon the rivulet,” Petition of John Reeder, December 4, 1776; and Mr Lewis for the Committee, December 29, 1776, in Jamaica, Journals of the House of the Assembly of Jamaica, 6, November 18, 1766 – December 21, 1776, 670–1.

103. Britain, [1779], An Act for the more effectually preventing the pernicious practices of smuggling.

104. “TO BE SOLD,” Morant Bay, The Daily Advertiser, May 28, 1791.

105. Petition by John Reeder to Speaker of Jamaica, 1783, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/1); Petition by John Reeder to Speaker of Jamaica, 1782, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/2); Petition of John Reeder, December 7, 1785, in Jamaica, Journals of the House of the Assembly of Jamaica, 8, October 19, 1784– March 5, 1791), 132.

106. Stephen Fuller to Lord Sidney, June 7, 1788, National Archives (CO 137/87), fol. 248.

107. Measuring Worth, www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/, (accessed February 18, 2023).

108. Stephen Fuller to Lord Sidney, June 7, 1788, National Archives (CO 137/87), fol. 248.

109. Answer to objections to Manufactory, c. 1789, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/20).

110. Petition by John Reeder to Speaker of Jamaica, 1783, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/1); Petition by John Reeder to Speaker of Jamaica, 1782, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/2); Petition of John Reeder, December 7, 1785, in Jamaica, Journals of the House of the Assembly of Jamaica 8, October 19, 1784– March 5, 1791), 132; “TO BE SOLD,” Morant Bay, The Daily Advertiser, May 28, 1791.

111. Petition by John Reeder to Speaker of Jamaica, 1783, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/1).

112. Copy Letters, from Stephen Fuller to John Rolle, 1788, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/7).

113. Measuring Worth, www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/, (accessed February 18, 2023.

114. Stephen Fuller to Lord Sidney, June 7, 1788, National Archives (CO 137/87), fol. 248.

115. Petition to House of Commons by Reeder for compensation, 1788, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/9).

116. 02 Jul 1780, (CoEPRT).

117. 31 Dec 1780, (CoEPRT).

118. 25 Dec 1780, (CoEPRT).

119. Report on consequences of dismantling the foundry, to Pitt, May 24, 1789, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/16); c.f. Brown, Tacky’s Revolt, 90–2.

120. Roberts, “Precolonial Currencies,” 157.

121. Daniels & Daniels, “The Origin of the Sugarcane Roller Mill,” 495.

122. Mintz, Sweetness and Power, xxii.

123. Brown, Tacky’s Revolt, 222.

124. July 2, 1780, (CoEPRT).

125. December 31, 1780, (CoEPRT).

126. July 2, 1780, (CoEPRT); December 31, 1780, (CoEPRT); For a summary of the debate of what can be read into the naming of enslaved people in Jamaica, see Williamson, “Africa or old Rome?.” For relevant discussion of the ambiguities of colonial archives in the cases of enslaved people and their baptism records, see Chira, Patchwork Freedoms, 25–6.

127. December 25, 1780, (CoEPRT).

128. Brown, Tacky’s Revolt, 85–128.

129. Bilby, “The Treacherous Feast,” 1–9; 21–3, and Note 8; Bilby, True-Born Maroons, 399–410.

130. The term “science” is the preferred term in Jamaica today. Among other eighteenth century instances in colonial literature, Moseley, [1799], A Treatise on Sugar, 170–1, used the term to describe an indigenous Jamaican system of practice and thought that the British called “obeah” or “obi,” where spiritual agents were apprehended through material techniques, to practical purposes. This science was the product of distinct ways of knowing – including West African heritages – articulated into a coherent discourse and practice under certain conditions, and often deflecting interference from hegemonic power. Moseley’s account was based on his experience working as a physician in Jamaica from 1768, just a few years after obeah was criminalised in Jamaica in 1760. For a recent analysis exploring the possible connection between this criminalisation and the use of the term “science” by practitioners, see Gerbner, “Maroon Science.”

131. Ampene, Engaging Modernity.

132. McCaskie, “Unspeakable Words, Unmasterable Feelings,” 5.

133. Bilby, “Swearing by the Past,” 669–70.

134. Brown, Tacky’s Revolt, 85–128.

135. Royal Gazette of Jamaica, Saturday August 5, 1780.

136. Royal Gazette of Jamaica, Saturday December 2, 1780); Saunders’s News-Letter, Friday October 20, 1780). Cork, Ireland, was a stopping point for voyages from Jamaica to Lancaster.

137. Moseley, [1799], A Treatise on Sugar, 174.

138. Jamaica, Journals of the House of Assembly of Jamaica, December 8, 1780; Royal Gazette of Jamaica, Saturday December 23, 1780.

139. Jamaica, Journals of the House of Assembly of Jamaica, December 23, 1780.

140. Jamaica, Journals of the House of Assembly of Jamaica, January 11, 1781.

141. Royal Gazette of Jamaica, Saturday February 3, 1781, 15; The Scots Magazine, Monday August 3, 1785, 406.

142. Royal Gazette of Jamaica, Saturday August 3, 1816); December 25, 1780, (CoEPRT).

143. Campbell, The Maroons of Jamaica, 165–81.

144. Sivapragasam, After the Treaties, 54.

145. Moseley, A Treatise on Sugar, 176; Jamaica, Journals of the House of Assembly of Jamaica, December 18, 1781), 437; December 25, 1780, (CoEPRT).

146. For a similar account of a science-man extracting a nail, see Beckwith, Black Roadways, 140; for accounts of active practices of animal magnetism on Saint-Domingue in the 1780s and for discussion of the symbolic power transfer involved in reports which conflated Afro-Caribbean therapies and rituals with mesmerist practice, see Regourd, “Mesmerism in Saint Domingue,” 320–24; and for the use of mesmerist practice as a diversion from accusations of obeah, see Gerbner, “Maroon Science,” 335. For evidence that animal magnetism was known and discussed at the same moment in Jamaica as a cure of diseases, see “Extract of a letter from a gentleman in Kingston to his friend in Spanish-Town,” South Carolina Gazette, July 15, 1785, 3.

147. For an early account of minkisi, see Dapper, [1668], Naukeurige Beschrijvinge Der Afrikaensche Gewesten, 548–9. It is relevant to note that when the distinctive tapered and square-edged iron bars of the West African trade began to be imported into Central Africa (alongside the significant immigration of West African people, see Vansina, Paths in the Rainforest, 145), minkisi were found pierced with tapered and square-edged iron pegs resembling scale models of these bars. In the late nineteenth century, the West African Toma group developed a distinctive new currency of slender iron rods called kissi pennies. Kissi pennies were then found piercing a Central African nkisi (see Roberts, “Precolonial Currencies, Value, Power, and Prestige,” 163) of the nkondi form associated with the most powerful moral authority (see, LaGamma, “The Recently Acquired Kongo Mangaaka Power Figure”). These treatments illustrate the importance of engaging with the status of iron currency forms’ material embodiment and ritual expressions in different groups and at different times.

148. Moseley, [1799], A Treatise on Sugar, 170–80.

149. Njoku, “Unmasking the Masquerade,” 149–50; Rashford, “Plants,” 64.

150. Letter from Director-General Willem Butler and Council, Elmina, March 27, 1719, Nationaal Archief, (1.05.01.02), fol. 265; Long, History of Jamaica, [1774], 424.

151. Njoku, “Unmasking the Masquerade,” 149–50; Rashford, “Plants,” 64.

152. Long, [1774], History of Jamaica, 424.

153. Rashford, “Plants,” 62–71.

154. Royal Gazette of Jamaica, Saturday February 3, 1781, 79.

155. Royal Gazette of Jamaica, Saturday April 28, 1781, 270.

156. Royal Gazette of Jamaica, Saturday September 9, 1780, 534.

157. Royal Gazette of Jamaica, Saturday September 2, 1780, 639; The Manchester Mercury, Tuesday December 4, 1781.

158. Royal Gazette of Jamaica, Saturday September 22, 1781, 603.

159. “Extract of a Letter from Sir Thomas Rich, of the Princess Royal, to Mr Stephens, dated Nov. 20 at Spithead,” Dublin Evening Post, Thursday November 29, 1781.

160. “Cousin” is used here and subsequently in the sense Cort himself used it: to denote a relative who is neither immediate nor completely removed.

161. James Weale, “Prospectus of an intended Work … ,” Dana Research Centre and Library (MS/0371/3), fol. 198–99.

162. Stephen Fuller to Lord Sidney, June 7, 1788, National Archives (CO 137/87) fol. 248.

163. Measuring Worth, www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/, (accessed February 18, 2023).

164. Cort, [1855], “British Iron Manufacture,” 622.

165. Elder, The Slave Trade, 173.

166. Will of Jane Cort, Spinster of Lancaster, Lancashire, January 2, 1799, National Archives, (PROB 11/1317/3); “Vessel Name; Ship Abby, Master’s Name: John Cort,” Lancashire County Council Archives (DDLPC/8/2), fol. 4591, fol. 4670; (DDLPC/8/3), fol. 4886, fol. 5068, fol. 5180, fol. 5372, fol. 5629.

167. “T Bell & Co,” October 1757, National Archives (ADM 22/75); “Batty and Cort,” 1762, The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office Archive (MP/28/2); See also, Alexander, “Key to the Henry Cort Story?,” 348; and Alexander, “Henry Cort,” 82–3.

168. For the geography of the sites involved, see Mott, Henry Cort, 22–6; For Barbot and the suggestion that Barbot’s addition of details on the Gold Coast iron trade came from conversations with English merchants while he was revising the 1688 text from Southampton, see Hair; Jones; Law, Barbot on Guinea, xvi-xviii and 562, note 3.

169. James Weale, “Prospectus of an intended Work … ” Dana Research Centre and Library (MS/0371/3), fol. 198.

170. James Weale, “Prospectus of an intended Work … ” Dana Research Centre and Library (MS/0371/3), fol. 198–99; Webster, “The Case of Henry Cort,” 387–8; Measuring Worth, www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/, (accessed February 18, 2023).

171. Cort, [1855], “British iron manufacture,” 622.

172. See James Gillray’s cartoon “Political Candour.” In response to a bill naming Jellicoe, the caricature politician declares “my whole life, I never did suspect, I never had the least suspicion of any thing dishonorable [sic] in the Right Honble Gent,” James Gillray, June 14, 1805, satirical print, The British Museum, no. 1868,0808.7372.

173. For Cort acting as a pay agent as early as 1757, see, “T Bell & Co,” October 1757, National Archives (ADM 22/75); For detail of how Henry Cort acted as a banker, see Alexander, “Henry Cort,” 82–3.

174. James Weale, “Prospectus of an intended Work … ” Dana Research Centre and Library (MS/0371/3), fol. 198.

175. Petition by John Reeder to Speaker of Jamaica, 1782, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/2).

176. Archibald Campbell, “A Memoir Relative to the Island of Jamaica,” 1782, British Library, (Kings MS 214), fol. 14; Petition by John Reeder to Speaker of Jamaica, 1783, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/1); Petition by John Reeder to Speaker of Jamaica, 1782, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/2).

177. Stephen Fuller to Lord Sidney, National Archives (CO 137/87) fol. 249; see also O’Shaughnessy, An Empire Divided, 208–20.

178. Archibald Campbell, “A Memoir Relative to the Island of Jamaica,” 1782, British Library, (Kings MS 214), fol. 14; fol. 78; see also Bollettino, Dziennik & Newman, “All Spirited Likely Young Lads.”

179. Petition by John Reeder to Speaker of Jamaica, 1783, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/1); Petition by John Reeder to Speaker of Jamaica, 1782, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/2).

180. Stephen Fuller to Chancellor of the Exchequer, June 17, 1788, National Archives (CO 137/87) fol. 254; Copy: Fuller to Chancellor, 1788, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/7).

181. Chatham Officers ask for clarification of the orders for cordage for Portsmouth and Jamaica, February 12, 1781, National Archives (ADM 106/1267/63); Commodore Alan Gardner to Wm Smith, Naval Storekeeper, Jamaica, to deliver old bell metal, old copper and iron in store … May 16, 1788, National Archives (ADM 106/1296/194); William Smith, Storekeeper, Jamaica, list of the casks, old copper, bell metal … to be returned to Portsmouth, June 2, 1788, National Archives (ADM 106/1296/197).

182. For Cort acting as a pay agent as early as 1757, see, “T Bell & Co,” October 1757, National Archives (ADM 22/75); For detail of how Henry Cort acted as a banker see Alexander, “Henry Cort,” 82–3; For Caribbean and South American postings of Cort’s clients, see “Batty and Cort,” 1762, The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office Archive (MP/28/2).

183. “Remarks on the Bill to secure the Payment of Prize and Bounty-money to Greenwich Hospital.” The London Magazine, March 1761, 122–125, especially 123.

184. Jamaica, Journals of the House of Assembly of Jamaica, July 3, 1781, 377.

185. Cort, Patent No. 1351.

186. Alexander, “Key to the Henry Cort Story?” 349.

187. James Weale, “Prospectus of an intended Work …” Dana Research Centre and Library (MS/0371/3), fol. 199.

188. Cort, [1855], “British iron manufacture,” 622; For Jellicoe’s anxiety at having “Considerably more than Twenty thousand Pounds engaged in the business of [Henry] Cort and my Son,” see Adam Jellicoe, November 11, 1782, “Letter … found in his Iron Chest after his Decease …,” Britain, [1805]. The Tenth Report of the Commissioners of Naval Enquiry, Appendix no. 48.

189. Petition by John Reeder to Speaker of Jamaica, 1783, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/1); Petition to House of Commons by Reeder for compensation, 1788, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/9).

190. James Watt to Matthew Boulton, December 14, 1782, Birmingham Library, (MS 3782), (12), (78), item 74.

191. Cort, Patent No. 1351.

192. Alexander Raby to Coningsby Cort, June 20, 1812, reproduced in Webster, [1859], “The Case of Henry Cort,” 53.

193. Petition by John Reeder to Speaker of Jamaica, 1782, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/2).

194. July 2, 1780, (CoEPRT).

195. December 31, 1780, (CoEPRT).

196. December 25, 1780, (CoEPRT).

197. The Scottish patent combines a brief version of the first English 1783 patent (No. 1351) with what would become the second English 1784 patent (No. 1420), demonstrating what is otherwise suggested by the wording: that Cort understood the second English patent as an extension of the first.

198. Cort, Patent No. 1420.

199. Cort, Patent No. 1351.

200. For Cort’s description of his process, see Cort, Patent No. 1420; For earlier accounts of treating iron in an air furnace (later called “puddling”), as well as the importance of understanding technological shifts not as individual achievements but broader societal shifts that take place in many places often around the same time, see Hayman, “The Cranage brothers and eighteenth-century forge technology,” 113–20.

201. Stephen Fuller, agent for Jamaica, to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, June 17, 1788, National Archives (CO 137/87/43); Copy: Fuller to Chancellor, 1788, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/7).

202. Answer to objections to Manufactory, c. 1789, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/20).

203. Indenture, 29 April 1772, between Edmund Duany and John Reeder, Jamaica Records Office, 91. I am indebted to Ashley Jones for a scan of this document.

204. Copy memorandum of Eliza L. Crosse concerning Reeder’s appeal, c. 1850, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/30).

205. Petition by John Reeder to Speaker of Jamaica, 1783, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/1); Petition by John Reeder to Speaker of Jamaica, 1782, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/2); Petition of John Reeder, 7 Dec 1785, in Jamaica, Journals of the House of Assembly of Jamaica, 8, (19 Oct 1784–5 Mar 1791), 132; “TO BE SOLD,” Morant Bay, The Daily Advertiser, May 28, 1791; Answer to objections to Manufactory, c. 1789, Devon Heritage Centre (1160 M/C/J/20).

206. Cort, Patent No. 1420.

207. For the framework to understand patents as a response to technology already in use, see Edgerton, “From innovation to use,” 124.

208. Holroyd, [1784], Observations on the Commerce of the American States. 19, note.

209. Williams, Capitalism & Slavery, 124–5; 154.

210. Cort, [1787], A Brief Statement of the Facts relative to the New Method of making Bar Iron with Raw Pit Coal and Grooved Rollers, Appendix, 13.

211. Britain, [1805], The Tenth Report of the Commissioners of Naval Enquiry, 159.

212. Alexander, “Adam Jellicoe,” 342.

213. MacLeod, “Concepts of invention”; MacLeod, Heroes of Invention, 249–79.

214. “Kort & Comp., Aan de Oost-Zeekust, en de Rivier Corantyn,” (1802), Nationaal Archief, (4.VEL), (C), (3.4), (1577B1–4), 7.

215. van Batenburg, [1807], Kort historisch verhaal van den eersten aanleg, lotgevallen en voortgang der particuliere Colonie Berbice, 198, 236, 266.

216. For an overview of the arguments around the exceptionally early dates of Leija sites in Nsukka, Nigeria, and the possibility of iron-working originating independently in West Africa, see Chiriruke, Metals in Past Societies, 26–7. For the impact of West and Central African preference for iron on the development of Europe’s financial sector and iron trade, see Evans & Rydén, “Voyage Iron,” 54; Evans & Rydén, Baltic Iron in the Atlantic World.

217. C.f. Rodney, “Portuguese Attempts at Monopoly on the Upper Guinea Coast”; and Rodney, A History of the Upper Guinea Coast.

218. Gibson, “Journal #Mermay: Mami Wata Thursday 7^th May 2019,” (accessed April 6, 2023).

219. Botkin, Thieving Three-Fingered Jack.

220. Bilby, True Born Maroons; “Swearing by the Past”; “The Treacherous Feast.”

221. Royal Gazette of Jamaica, Saturday August 3, 1816; Englishman, Sunday October 20, 1816; The Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser, Monday October 21, 1816; Exeter Flying Post, Thursday October 24, 1816; National Register, Monday October 21, 1816; Star, Monday October 21, 1816; Cambridge Chronicle and Journal, Friday October 25, 1816; Norfolk Chronicle, Saturday October 26, 1816; Sun, Saturday October 26, 1816; Champion, Sunday October 27, 1816; The News, Sunday October 27, 1816; South Eastern Gazette, Tuesday October 29, 1816); Hereford Journal, Wednesday October 30, 1816; Aberdeen Press and Journal, Wednesday October 30, 1816; The Perthshire Courier, Thursday October 31, 1816; Stamford Mercury, Friday November 1, 1816; Staffordshire Advertiser, Saturday November 2, 1816; Caledonian Mercury, Monday November 4, 1816; Hull Packet, Tuesday November 5, 1816; Manchester Mercury, Tuesday November 5, 1816; Commercial Chronicle, Tuesday October 29, 1816; Chester Chronicle, Friday November 15, 1816; The Scots Magazine, Sunday December 1, 1816.

222. Gibbs, “Toussaint, Gabriel, and Three Finger’d Jack.”

223. Bilby, True-Born Maroons, 309–12.

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