“Since Evans used his male slaves to crew his wherry, and rented them out to the navy as dock labourers and caulkers, they were named in more practical, masculine style….He called them ‘Plymouth’, or ‘Gosport’, or ‘Bristol’, or after other British ports, as if they were horses or pet animals, not human beings.”
- Linda Colley, The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh: A Woman in World History, New York: Anchor Books, 2007.
If only you knew, Linda; if only you knew.
