Passengers of the Generous Jenny
Enslaved but Not Forgotten
1720
In 1720, the 10-gun, 230-ton ship, Generous Jenny, embarked from England to the coast of West Africa. Captained by Richard Lambert, Generous Jenny was employed to take James Bowles’ order of 260 enslaved individuals to be shipped on consignment from Cape Coast Castle on the Gold Coast of Africa to what would become Sotterley Plantation in St. Mary’s County, Maryland. The Royal African Company’s Generous Jenny was the first documented Middle Passage ship to deliver enslaved Africans directly to Sotterley.
After 96 days of appalling conditions in the Middle Passage where at least 29 individuals died of smallpox, Generous Jenny disembarked 218 enslaved from the Patuxent River. After the arrival of Generous Jenny in September, the remaining 211 enslaved were shipped to Virginia. Bowles’ large purchase on consignment and subsequent shipment to Virginia indicates that Bowles’ profited from the slave trade.
In December of 2018, Historic Sotterley was named a UNESCO Site of Memory for Routes of Enslaved People for their efforts to research and document Sotterley’s connections to the transatlantic slave trade in addition to their work to ensure that this history is shared as an educational resource with visitors and the community. Each year as a part of Historic Sotterley’s Day of Unity and UNESCO Day of Remembrance, the staff and descendants ring a bell 29 times to honor the lives of those who died on board The Generous Jenny. While we do not know their names, we have not forgotten them.
Additional Resources
Understanding the History of Slavery in the Americas (emory.edu)
Sotterley Plantation (Images of America) by Jeanne K. Pirtle.
Visit Historic Sotterley,
