Anna Maria Falconbridge
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Isaac DuBois (m. 1793)
Anna Maria Falconbridge | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1769 Bristol, England |
| Died | 7 July 1835 (aged 65–66) New York, United States of America |
| Spouse(s) | Alexander Falconbridge (m. 1788, d. 1792) Isaac DuBois (m. 1793) |
Anna Maria Falconbridge (née Horwood, 1769 – 7 July 1835) was an English travel writer who accompanied her husband Alexander Falconbridge to Sierra Leone twice. Once there she “described her experiences in a series of lively, informative letters”.[1] In her work Narrative of Two Voyages she defended the slave trade and ridiculed her abolitionist-supporting dead husband.[2] She was the first English woman to give a narrative account of experiences on the African continent.
Anna Maria Horwood was born in Bristol, England in 1769 to father Charles Horwood to Grace Horwood née Roberts.[3] Her father was a local clock maker. After her parents’ death, she married Alexander Falconbridge, slave ship surgeon turned abolitionist, on 16 October 1788, aged 19, in Easton in Gordano, Somerset, "hastily" and against her family and friends' wishes.[4]
Visits to Africa
During Anna Maria's first trip to Africa, she visited a slave-trading fort, Bunce Island, in the Sierra Leone River. It would seem that Anna Maria, came from a family that took part in the slave trade but she was originally sympathetic to the plight of the slaves. Dr Alexander had made 4 slaving voyages as ships' surgeon but became increasingly opposed to the trade. He would not allow his wife to stay with the traders on Bunce Island but insisted she live on a small boat, although Anna Maria accompanied Mr. Falconbridge on some of his visits to the main land. “During her stay Anna Maria observed all she could of the country and its people, their customs, religion, and economy, and wrote about what she saw.”[1]
On Anna Maria's second trip to Africa she travelled with people who had been sent to form a colony, by bringing freed slaves and former Black Loyalists to Britain during the American Revolutionary War to the settlement, in 1791.[4][5][6] Falconbridge was appointed commercial agent, leaving his small medical practice for the good salary offered by the Sierra Leone Company (SLC). The settlement was named Freetown. “More than a thousand settlers”[1] came to Freetown, arriving at the start of the rainy season. Hundreds died because there was no shelter for them when they arrived,[6] but Anna Maria kept her health and continued to write, becoming ill for just a short time. Her husband was dismissed by the directors of the Sierra Leone Company just hours before his death, and while his excessive drinking was used as an excuse it would seem that he and others dismissed by the company were used as scapegoats. Other dismissals included Charles Horwood, brother of Anna Maria, and her second husband Isaac DuBois. Alexander died on 19 December 1792 and is believed to be buried in the area of Freetown; the place was not recorded. Her brother William who had accompanied them on the last voyage had died the previous year of "fever" contracted on Bance Island and is most likely buried there also. Falcon Bridge Point was named for Dr Alexander Falconbridge.
