The Royal Navy's employment of black mariners and maritime workers, 1754-1783

The Royal Navy has been portrayed as an institution that embodied liberty, regularly

employing and relying upon blacks to keep its vessels afloat and to implement Britain's

blue water policy. Despite the critical role black naval seamen played, their employment

was shaped more by regional practices than by Admiralty edicts. The result was that blacks

were often treated inequitably. Black seamen had less access to pension benefits and

were not promoted in the same numbers as working-class white seamen. In England and

New York, blacks were largely kept out of royal dockyards and received less favourable

compensation than whites. In contrast, while blacks were employed in great numbers in

the slave-based economies of Antigua and Senegambia, they were largely barred from

highly skilled maritime artisan work. In sum, blacks' experiences in the Royal Navy were

varied and were more influenced by local conditions than by edicts from London.