of song called a "stamp and haul." If the vessel had a competent violinist onboard , he was allowed to play rhythmic tunes on a fiddle to help accomplish tedious timeconsumi ng labors. One such musician was landsma n Joseph Antonio Emidy. Emidy had been sold into slavery to Portuguese traders when he was a yo ung boy. Born in G uinea on the W es t Coas t of
sell the produce. It is not clear if the slaves could keep the profits. 2 Emidy's earliest history as a slave is unknown, bur as a child he was likely assigned as someone's personal attendant rather than a plantation laborer. The boy ultimately came to live in Lisbon with his owner. At the time, it was fas hionable in Portugal to h ave a few black household
After three or fo ur yea rs of study and countless hours of practice, in 1795 the twe nty-year-old Emidy was admitted to the second violin section in the orches tra of the Lisbon O pera . Thi s was a n extrao rdinary achieve ment for a nyo ne of his age, but fo r an under-educated A fri ca n fo rmer slave with a limited exposure to European culture, it was truly rem arkable.
Sir Edward Pellew (left) and James Silk Buckingham (right) each recognized Emidy's talents as a musician and would influence his life in very different ways. Pellew exploited him, while Buckingham became his pupil in both music and in life. Later, as a member of Parliament, Buckingham set his sights on abolishing impressment in the navy and slavery.
Afri ca, his birth date is simply recorded as 1775.1 Portugal was one of the earlies t Eu ro pea n slave- trading countries; most of their slaves were sent to Brazil, where the Portuguese tried to conve rt them to C h r istianit y and integrate them into the social life of the colony. In Portuguese Brazil, dom es tic female slaves cooked , clean ed , did laundry, fetched water, and performed childca re. In urban settings, Afri can slave women sold tropical frui ts and vege tables, and prepared A fri can dishes. Blacks a nd whi tes mi xed freely and slaves were provided sm all plots of land to cultivate a nd
serva nts. Altho ugh Po rtug uese Prime M inister M arques de Pombal abolished slave ry in Portugal on 2 Febru ary 1761 , this action did not affect or address slavery in the colonies, where slavery was the labor engine of the economies. It is not clear if Emidy, now residing in Po rtugal's capital, was a free ma n at this time or not, but while in Lisbon, Emidy's talent for music became apparent to others. His m as ter (or fo rmer mas ter) allowed him to develop his natural talent, supplyin g him w ith a violin, a teacher, a nd the opportunity for employm ent as a professional musician.
Emidy's life wo uld radically change, all because of a par tly submerged rock off Cape Finisterre. The British fri gate Indefatigable (38) , commanded by Captain Sir Edward Pellew (later Visco unt Exm outh), grounded on a rock on 7 May 1795 , while pursuing a French fleet during the Napoleo nic Wa r. 3 D am aged but aflo at, Indefatigable limped into the Tagus River and onto the Lisbon dockyards fo r repairs. The following passage describes what happened next:
1
111e lite of Jose ph Antoni o E midy is recounted in pages 165-169 in the autob iogra ph y of Ja mes Silk Buck ingha m, the Br iti sh abo litionist/polit icia n. It is ind icated o n E m idy's head stone that he was born in 1775, b u r the actual d ate is un k now n. 2 Po rtu ga l tra nsported 178,000 Afri ca n slaves to Brazil between 1780 and 1790, mostl y fro m what is now A ngola. 3 111e A rd ent-class third-rare fr igate at t he time h ad been cut dow n (razeed) from a 64 -gun ship a rmed with 42- pounder ca rro nades to 24-po under lo ng guns.
SEA HISTORY 145, WINTER 201 3- 14
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