African captives mutiny and seize the slave ship Hope as it lies off the West Arican coast; the uprising is eventually quelled, and the mutineers are sold into slavery in Puerto Rico. In August 1764, the sensational case of a slaving voyage struck by multiple shipboard insurrections was widely reported in the American press, filling newspaper columns in port cities throughout the Northeast. The vessel in question was the Hope of New London, Connecticut, which limped into port at the Caribbean island of St. Thomas after a harrowing voyage from West Africa. Explaining the death of Captain Gould and two seamen. the surviving sailors described a deadly slave revolt that they said occurred while the Hope was still on the Senegal coast. According to the crew, the forty-three slaves on board at the time suddenly revolted as the vessel was weighing anchor to sail to the nearby island of Goree. In the ensuing fight, the Africans managed to kill the captain and two of his crew before anyone had time to react. However, the rebels then made the fateful mistake of fleeing below deck, where the remainder of the sailors were quickly able to confine them and put an end to the deadly incident. After order was restored. the Hope finally managed to leave the African coast bound for the West Indies, this time under the watch of a new commander, George Taggart, who replaced the fallen Gould. However. the passage was not to be a smooth one. for at some point during the voyage the slaves rose once again, this time killing the ship's carpenter. The crew opened fire on the rebelling slaves, killing seven or eight and thus ending the insurrection. Finally, after the remaining Africans had been placed in double irons to avoid a third rebellion, the vessel made its way to St. Thomas, and the troubled slaving voyage of the Hope came to an end.

If We Must Die: Shipboard Insurrections in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade by Eric Robert Taylor