Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Map of Sierra Leone
- Editor's Introduction
- Anna Maria Falconbridge Narrative of Two Voyages to the River Sierra Leone during the years 1791–1792–1793
- Dedication
- Preface
- Letter I
- Letter II
- Letter III
- Letter III [sic]
- Letter IV
- Letter V
- Letter VI
- Letter VII
- Letter VIII
- Letter IX
- Editor's Comment
- Letter X
- Journal
- Letter XI
- Editor's Comment
- Letter XII
- Editor's Comment
- Letter XIII
- Letter XIV
- Editor's Comment
- Letter to Henry Thornton
- Appendix
- Editor's Comment
- The Journal of Isaac DuBois
- Alexander Falconbridge An Account of the Slave Trade
- Index
Editor's Comment
from Anna Maria Falconbridge Narrative of Two Voyages to the River Sierra Leone during the years 1791–1792–1793
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Map of Sierra Leone
- Editor's Introduction
- Anna Maria Falconbridge Narrative of Two Voyages to the River Sierra Leone during the years 1791–1792–1793
- Dedication
- Preface
- Letter I
- Letter II
- Letter III
- Letter III [sic]
- Letter IV
- Letter V
- Letter VI
- Letter VII
- Letter VIII
- Letter IX
- Editor's Comment
- Letter X
- Journal
- Letter XI
- Editor's Comment
- Letter XII
- Editor's Comment
- Letter XIII
- Letter XIV
- Editor's Comment
- Letter to Henry Thornton
- Appendix
- Editor's Comment
- The Journal of Isaac DuBois
- Alexander Falconbridge An Account of the Slave Trade
- Index
Summary
The title page of the book proclaimed that it was not merely a narrative of the author's travels. It began Two Voyages to Sierra Leone during the years 1791–2–3, In a Series of letters, by Anna Maria Falconbridge, and went on To which is added, A letter from the Author to Henry Thornton, Esq. M.P. And Chairman of the Court of Directors of the Sierra Leone Company. Then followed the quotation “If I can hold a Torch to others, / ’Tis all I want – – ”. It was published in London, and “Printed for the author, and sold by different booksellers throughout the kingdom”, price five shillings.
Mrs Falconbridge had an ally in Carl Bernhard Wadstrom, another Swedenborgian Swede (see footnotes 73, 79) who, also in 1794, published An Essay on Colonization, a vast tome replete with numerous appendices on various colonization projects, including a detailed account of Sierra Leone. He too had a grievance against the Company, for not giving any financial support to the widow and children of his countryman Nordenskiöld, who had died in its service, or any remuneration to the botanist Afzelius. To Clarkson and DuBois he gave high praise, adding -
The resolution of Mrs Falconbridge (now Mrs Dubois) in accompanying her former husband twice to S. Leona, and the hardships she suffered at the unpromising commencement of the colony, destitute as it then was of every thing necessary to the comfort of a well educated English lady, prove that even the tender sex, under the influence of conjugal attachment, may be so much interested in a great undertaking, as to forget the delicacy of their frame, and to face danger and distress in every terrifying shape. That this lady possesses not only patience and fortitude to endure difficulties, but ability to describe them, will not be doubted by those who have read her interesting account of Sierra Leona, which she published after her second return from that colony. If any excess of warmth should be observed in some parts of this spirited little work, it will be remembered that the writer is a woman who generously sacrificed her ease and comfort, to a principle of duty to her husband, and enlightened zeal in a great cause…
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- Anna Maria FalconbridgeNarrative of Two Voyages to the River Sierra Leone during the Years 1791-1792-1793, pp. 170 - 179Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2000