Category: Slavery and the Swan River Colony

In our search for the identity of Black Anderson we are looking closely at the emigration ship James Pattison and its passenger list. The ship was chartered by Sir James Stirling and the Mangles family, both of whom had profited from slave related activities. It also carried the Albany settler Patrick Taylor Esq, whose father made a fortune in Jamaica trading African slaves. The below is republication of a Creative Commons article first published by on-line magazine The Conversation which details the Stirling and Mangles family interest, and their subsequent cooperation in forming the Swan River Colony venture. The article appeared in the lead up to the unsuccessful 2021 City of Stirling council vote to change its name. Given the inaugural Governor’s sanctioning of and participation in the Battle of Pinjarra, the clear suggestion is that the state was founded upon commercial opportunity and that the massacre, therefore, was commercially motivated. Certainly, there are grounds for this argument.

Black Anderson – A story of the South Coast – Part 2  is nearing completion and will be published soon.