John G.M. Sharp

Historian, Sailor & Author

[John G.M. Sharp @JohnGMSharp1]

@MarcusRediker @elravignani @VikingBooks Enjoyed your fascinating talk re" Escaping Slavery by Sea" Some years ago I wrote on freedom seeker George Teamoh, an enslaved caulker at Norfolk Navy Yard who escaped on merchant vessel. https://t.co/81chmrdCdT

[John G.M. Sharp @JohnGMSharp1]

@Vanguard_WW2 May his name be a Blessing.

[John G.M. Sharp @JohnGMSharp1]

@edithmayhall Yikes, Festina Lente.

[John G.M. Sharp @JohnGMSharp1]

@pompei79 @pompeii_sites Thank you for the informed update on the ongoing excavations, these images are truelly wonderful.

[John G.M. Sharp @JohnGMSharp1]

@SalinaBBaker Hang in there, pacemakers work, you will be on the road to recovery soon.

[John G.M. Sharp @JohnGMSharp1]

@ArlingtonNatl HMCM John Francis Kelsey

[John G.M. Sharp @JohnGMSharp1]

@ProenzaColes From nurse Ann Bradford Stokes, pension folder. She served on the the hospital ships, USS Red Rover and USS Black Hawk.

[John G.M. Sharp @JohnGMSharp1]

@ProenzaColes Ann Bradford Stokes civil war pension was so unique the pension examiners found it necessary to elaborate, "There is nothing in the section... which says whether said person shall be a man or woman."

[John G.M. Sharp @JohnGMSharp1]

@ProenzaColes Thanks for the great post, here is Ann Bradford Stokes, Nurse USN approved civil war pension. Nurse Stokes served on both the USS Red Rover and USS Black Hawk.

[John G.M. Sharp @JohnGMSharp1]

@WhatAboutClass Go Gators.

[John G.M. Sharp @JohnGMSharp1]

@historyinmemes Recruit Training Center Great Lakes, gave us all a quick course.

[John G.M. Sharp @JohnGMSharp1]

@AntigoneJournal Jude Fawley need not apply

[John G.M. Sharp @JohnGMSharp1]

@ScottShaneNYT Scott, Thanks again for Flee North, your brilliant account of Thomas Smallwood fascinating and heroic life .
Hope they record your talk.

[John G.M. Sharp @JohnGMSharp1]

Pensacola Navy Yard Station log for 15 Sept 1836. Duty officer notes 3 enlisted sailors "had made their escape during the night."
The daily tasks for navy yard enslaved "Laborers" and naval enlisted men in ordinary are also notated.

[John G.M. Sharp @JohnGMSharp1]

Pensacola Navy Yard Station log for 14 Sept 1836,the duty officer has notated "Received Thomas Warner into The Yard as a Laborer"Typically Pensacola NY leased enslaved laborer for periods of six months to a year. See Dibble, Ernest, Antebellum Pensacola, 1974, p.72 Image NARA

[John G.M. Sharp @JohnGMSharp1]

Daily Station log, Pensacola Navy Yard, 1 July 1836 Enslaved "laborers" were leased to Navy Yard from prominent slaveholders such as the Willis family and “in almost all instances enslaved”

Dibble, Ernest ,Antebellum Pensacola , 1974, p.72
Image NARA

[John G.M. Sharp @JohnGMSharp1]

@saytheirnamesIr One more sailor, David Black, LM, listed his place of birth as "Africa". On the muster, the Hermione purser, noted Black, was part of the ship "carpenter crew."
British National Archives ADM 36/2011
HMS Hermione 1797 muster, p.8, no. 159

[John G.M. Sharp @JohnGMSharp1]

Listed on the HMS Hermione 1797 muster (p.13, no. 252) is 29 year old, Able Seaman, William Lewis, who gave his place of birth as Senegal, Africa .
British National Archives ADM 36/2011

[John G.M. Sharp @JohnGMSharp1]

A Sailors Epitaph
Henry Prosper Sn, "Lost at Sea, fell from the Main topsail yard, 11 July 1804, Never seen him more!!"

Muster roll, USS Congress, 1804, p.6

[John G.M. Sharp @JohnGMSharp1]

HMS Hermione 1797 muster (ADM36120117) detail of 5 seamen "D.D." Departed Dead". Two killed by the bursting of a gun & 3 others of Yellow Fever.

20/21 Sept. 1797 a high mortality, duty suppressing Haitian revolt & a cruel captain, led to bloodiest mutiny in Royal naval history