Book summary
Trama e riassunto di Capitan Canot; ovvero, vent’anni come negriero in Africa
- 8 min di lettura
- 11 key ideas
- Audio a breve
An Italian sailor swims away from a pirate massacre and drifts into twenty years of slave trading.
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Capitan Canot; ovvero, vent’anni come negriero in Africa in breve
Riassunto: 8 min di lettura
- Tempo di lettura
- Circa 9 h 50 min7 h 50 min fast, 11 h 40 min slow
- Durata
- 140.400 parole
- Livello nella biblioteca
- Impegnativo long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- Prima pubblicazione
- 1854by Théodore Canot; Brantz Mayer
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Quanto tempo ci vuole per leggere i classici · Aggiornato
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Capitan Canot; ovvero, vent’anni come negriero in Africa in short
Captain Canot follows one man across three continents and nearly three decades. A boy sails from Tuscany, survives a pirate massacre in Cuba, and is drawn by fast ships and a friendly grocer into the slave trade. He becomes a trader, a caravan guest, a captive, a convict, and finally an agent for Blanco.
What Capitan Canot; ovvero, vent’anni come negriero in Africa is about
Picture a young sailor from Tuscany, stripped to his trousers, swimming through a dark sea while pirates fire at him from the deck of the ship he served on. He lives. Within a few years he is buying and shipping human beings for sale in Cuba.
Captain Canot, or Twenty Years of an African Slaver, tells the life of Theodore Canot. The American author Brantz Mayer wrote it up from long talks with Canot and published it in 1854. You follow a boy of twelve to sea, a piracy that points him toward the slave trade, and the trade from an African river to a Cuban plantation. Canot likes to flatter himself, so the book rewards a careful ear.
A chi è rivolto. Readers who love true sea adventure, firsthand accounts of the Atlantic slave trade, West African rivers and kingdoms, and memoirs where a narrator's words show what he leaves out.
The 11 key ideas
Key idea 1 · free to read
A restless boy learns the sea early
Theodore Canot is born in Tuscany to a French army paymaster and an Italian mother. His father dies at Waterloo and leaves six children and little money. At nearly twelve, the boy chooses the sea, and in 1819 he sails from Leghorn as an apprentice on the American ship Galatea of Boston.
He speaks no English at first, and the crew blames him for every broken plate. A clerk teaches him English and the captain teaches him navigation. Left alone as acting captain in Boston, he bars an old man from the cabin, bites and kicks him, and fetches a loaded musket. The old man is the ship's owner, who laughs and pays him fifty dollars.
Years of voyages follow, and then a wreck off Flushing, where Canot rows the survivors to shore. These chapters show a young man quick with languages and fists. Luck, bluff and escape become his pattern.
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A wreck on a Cuban reef ends in murder
In 1824 Canot signs on a Dutch galliot bound for Havana.
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Among pirates, Canot waits for his chance
Don Rafael gives Canot a knife and strict advice.
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A grocer in Havana sends him to Africa
In the village of Regla across Havana harbor, Canot lodges with an Italian grocer, Signor Carlo.
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Bangalang teaches the business of trade
John Ormond, called Mongo John, is the son of a Liverpool slave trader and a local chief's daughter.
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His own defense of the trade has limits
Canot stops his story to explain how enslaved people are shipped.
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A journey to Timbo shows the interior
In 1827 Canot sets up his own post at Kambia.
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Betrayal, battles, and a friend's end
The Mongo of Bangalang is Canot's friend until a falling-out.
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Capture, prison, and a failed escape
Canot's later voyages cost him dearly.
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Blanco, Gallinas, and New Sestros
Canot arrives at Gallinas, the great slave market of the Spanish traders.
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A lawful trader at Cape Mount fails
With a London merchant, Canot buys the territory of Cape Mount from King Fana-Toro and founds a town called New Florence.
Read all 11 key ideas now
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Domande su Capitan Canot; ovvero, vent’anni come negriero in Africa
What is Captain Canot about?
It is the memoir of Theodore Canot, a sailor born in Tuscany who spends about twenty years in and around the slave trade on the West African coast, with piracy, shipwrecks, imprisonment and an attempt at lawful trade.
Who wrote Captain Canot?
Brantz Mayer wrote the book from conversations with Theodore Canot and published it in 1854. The narration is in Canot's own voice, so the text reads as a first-person memoir.
Is Captain Canot a true story?
It is presented as a true account of Canot's life and many people and places in it can be checked. Canot, however, tells it to flatter himself, so readers should weigh his claims against other evidence.
Who are Ormond, Blanco and Ahmah-de-Bellah in the book?
Ormond is the mixed-race trader called Mongo John who first employs Canot. Blanco is the Spanish slave merchant of Gallinas. Ahmah-de-Bellah is the Fullah prince who treats Canot as a brother.
Is Captain Canot worth reading?
It gives a firsthand view of the slave trade from the African river to the Cuban shore, in lively scenes with chases, escapes and portraits of kings, and it shows how its author justified what he did.
Cita questa edizione
Canot, Theodore, and Brantz Mayer. Captain Canot; Or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/captain-canot-or-twenty-years-of-an-african-slaver.
Canot, T., & Mayer, B. (2026). Captain Canot; or, twenty years of an African slaver. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/captain-canot-or-twenty-years-of-an-african-slaver (Original work published 1854)
Canot, Theodore, and Brantz Mayer. Captain Canot; Or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/captain-canot-or-twenty-years-of-an-african-slaver.
@book{canot2026captain,
author = {Canot, Theodore and Mayer, Brantz},
title = {Captain Canot; Or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/captain-canot-or-twenty-years-of-an-african-slaver},
note = {First published 1854}
}
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