Briton Hammon was a slave of African descent who lived in British North America during the middle of the 18th century. On December 25, 1747, by leave of his owner, 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. Hammon and the crew were cast away off the coast of Florida, beginning a series of hardships and adventures that 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 the indigenous peoples of Florida, spending four years in a Spanish prison in Cuba, being rescued by a British lieutenant who smuggled 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 recounted reuniting with his owner in London. The narrative concludes with his owner taking him back to New England.[1][2]
- ^ Hammon, Briton. A Narrative of the Uncommon Sufferings, and Surprizing Deliverance of Briton Hammon (1760). Library of Congress Digital Collections.
- ^ Hutchins, Zachary. "Summary" of A Narrative. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Documenting the American South.