George Thompson among the Africans: Empathy, Authority, and Insanity in the Age of Abolition

In late October 1847, somewhere along the West African coast, William Raymond took a break from his usual busy schedule to write a letter. It had been almost six years since he arrived on the shores of Sierra Leone with the thirty-five surviving veterans of the Amistad slave revolt, and though he remained confident in the success of his mission, he was emotionally stressed and physically exhausted. Most of the Amistad group had abandoned him long ago. His two children were dead and buried, and he had almost lost his wife as well, before she escaped to America to recuperate her health. Tropical disease, stubborn chiefs, and avaricious slave traders had all taken their toll. Though only thirty-two, Raymond appeared at least a decade older. All his front teeth were gone, and a native girl had just discovered a lonely crop of...