Briton Hammon

Briton Hammon was an enslaved person of African descent who lived in British North America during the middle of the 18th century. On December 25, 1747, by leave of his master, Hammon left his home in Marshfield, Massachusetts to board a ship in neighboring Plymouth to work on a sailing ship headed for Jamaica. On June 15, 1748, the ship wrecked and he and the crew were cast away off the coast of Florida, beginning a series of hardships and adventures he chronicled in an autobiographical account, A Narrative of the Uncommon Sufferings, and Surprizing [sic] Deliverance of Briton Hammon, A Negro Man, first published in 1760. His experiences after the shipwreck included being held captive by Florida Indians, spending four years in a Spanish prison in Cuba, rescue by a British lieutenant who smuggles him on board a British man-o-war, and then serving several years in the British navy before suffering wounds during a skirmish with a French warship. Hammon was honorably discharged from the Royal Navy, and recounts being reunited with his old master in London. The narrative concludes with his master taking him back to New England.

On December 25, 1747, Briton Hammon left Marshfield in Boston on his first expedition with the permission of his master, General Winslow. He intended to go to Plymouth and from there Jamaica. However, on June 15, 1748, the ship Hammon was aboard floundered not far from the shore of Cape Florida. The captain ordered the ship’s crew to, in small groups, make for the shore in a boat. When half of the crew was ashore, they were attacked by a group of 60 Indians, who captured and bound them. Then after burning the ship and killing those still aboard, they returned and started killing those who were bound. Seeing his eminent death, Hammon attempted to escape by swimming away. Though this was unsuccessful, he was the only survivor of the crew. He was held captive by the Indians and fed well.

Then a Spanish ship arrived from St. Augustine. Its captain made a deal with the Indians, giving them 10 dollars for Hammon and persuading the Indians to not hereafter kill any other persons but capture as many as they could and sell them to him for 10 dollars each.

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