Briton Hammon in the Archives

Sharing new evidence from the British National Archives, Hutchins traces the circum-Atlantic journey of Massachusetts resident Briton Hammon. The enslaved Hammon published a narrative of his travels in 1760, an account many have described as the first slave narrative. In the Narrative Hammon places himself at the nexus of global politics, a player in the War of Jenkin’s Ear, the Seven Year’s War, and the larger power struggle between Catholics and Protestants.