The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave

Multiple stages of Prince’s life involve the sea. After her first enslaver dies, she becomes the “property” of old Captain Darrel, gifted to his grandchild whose father was Captain Williams, “master of a vessel which traded to several places in America” (5). Further, being bought and sold several times over her lifetime, she is often transported by sea. The prominence of sea travel in her autobiography evokes the Middle Passage, the journey taken by ships loaded with enslaved Africans from the western coast of Africa across the Atlantic Ocean and to the Americas. While the sea might symbolize freedom and movement in other kinds of narratives, for Prince it is tied to her enslavement. The prominence of the sea also makes sense in light of her residence on a Caribbean island surrounded by water. Maritime and seafaring are important in other narratives of enslaved people, such as The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African (1789); the narrator, Olaudah Equiano, was also in the Caribbean for a time. Likewise, in the “Narrative of Asa-Asa,” Asa-Asa recounts the centrality of sea travel during his enslavement. He says he was “taken in a boat from place to place” (43), and the ship took him away from Africa permanently.