A man called "No. 3" and a woman called "No. 4"

"Norris kept a captain's log for his ovyage in the Unity from Liverpool to Whydah, to Jamaica, and back to Liverpool between n1769 and 1771.  A week after weighing anchor at Whydah and setting sail to cross the Atlantic, Norris noted that "the Slaves made an Insurrection, which was soon quelled with ye Loss [of] two Women."  Two weeks later the enslaved rose again, the women once more in the lead and therefore singled out for special punishment; Norris "gave ye women concerned 24 lashes each."  Three days later they made a third effort after several "got of their Handcuffs," but Norris and crew managed to get them back into their irons.  And the following morning they tried for a fourth time: "the Slaves attempted to force up ye Gratings in the Night, with a design to murder ye whites or drown themselves."  He added that they "confessed their intentions and that ye women as well as ye men were determin'd if disappointed of cutting off ye whites, to jump over board but in case of being prevented by their Irons were resolved as their last attempt to burnt the ship."  So great was their determination that in the event of failure they planned a mass suicide by drowning or self-incineration.  "Their obstinacy," wrote Norris, "put me under ye Necessity of shooting ye Ringleader."  But even this did not end the matter.  A man Norris called "No. 3" and a woman he called "No. 4," both of whom had been on the ship a long time, continued to resist and died in fits of madness.  "They had frequently attempted to drown themselves, since their Views were disappointed in ye Insurrection."

~Marcus Rediker, The Slave Ship (p. 32).

The FOR REAL Don't Stop, Can't Stop, Won't Stop.  (BA homing impulse.) Awo.