PETER STRICKLAND: New London Shipmaster Boston Merchant First Consul to Senegal

Stephen H. Grant
New Academia Publishing, 2007
232 Pages, 30 Illustrations
ISBN 978-0-9787713-3-1 Paperback

For BULK ORDERS, order directly from New Academia Publishing.
Queries: orders@newacademia.com

Awards:

Honorary Member of the Association of the Historical Museum of Goree, and Goree Pilgrim Award

About the Author

Stephen H. Grant, EdD is a retired Foreign Service officer with 25 year experience serving with USAID in Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Egypt, Indonesia, and El Salvador. His government service abroad was sparked by his being an American Field Service exchange student in Germany and a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cote d’Ivoire, then referred to as Ivory Coast.

Grant’s writing career has been divided between Biography and Deltiology. A deltiologist collects and analyzes picture postcards. A biographer writes life stories of other people. The author first chose as subject a Connecticut Yankee during the Age of Sail who became merchant and consul in West Africa. Then he selected a Victorian couple during the Gilded Age who assembled the largest collection of Shakespeareana in the world.  Grant has written postcard books in three countries (Guinea, Indonesia, El Salvador). on three continents.

Durr, P., Grant, S., Sivan, S., Tompapa, E., Images de Guinée. Conakry, Guinea: Imprimerie Mission Catholique, 1st ed. 1991, 2nd ed. 1994, 147 pp.

Grant, Stephen, Former Points of View: Postcards and Literary Passages from Pre-Independence Indonesia. Jakarta, Indonesia: LONTAR, 1995, 168 pp. ISBN 979-8083.22-9.

Grant, Stephen, Postales Salvadoreñas del Ayer/Early Salvadoran Postcards. San Salvador, El Salvador: Fundación María Escalón de Núñez, 1999, 328 pp.  Bilingual edition. ISBN 99923-20-01-1.

Grant, Stephen H., Peter Strickland: New London Shipmaster, Boston Merchant, First Consul to Senegal. Washington, DC: New Academia, 2007, 236 pp. An Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training “Diplomats and Diplomacy Book.” ISBN 978-0-9787713-3-1.

Grant, Stephen H., Collecting Shakespeare: The Story of Henry and Emily Folger. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014. 264 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-1187-3.

See website www.stephenhgrant.com for book praise, book trailers, and blog posts.

About the book

Capt. Peter Strickland, a little known Connecticut Yankee, crossed the Atlantic 100 times in command of a sailing vessel, traded with French and Portugese colonies during the period of 1864-1905, and served as the first American consul to French West Africa for over 20 years.

Strickland’s merchant marine career led him from the east coast of the United States to the west coast of Africa. He introduced American tobacco and wood products into French and Portuguese colonies and on the return trips carried animal hides and peanuts in his 100-ton schooners. He wrote and published a book on behalf of sailors. The U.S. State Department asked him to become the first consul in French West Africa, with residence in Senegal. The captain accepted the terms: he would receive no salary, but he could keep the port fees he collected and continue to practice his import-export business. Living on the former slave island of Goree, Strickland battled epidemics of cholera and yellow fever. His 23-year-old son George accidentally drowned off the coast of Dakar, Senegal. Demoralized and ill, Strickland retired to Boston in 1905 and became a gentleman farmer. At age 77, he copied his entire journal into bound volumes.

This is an ADST-DACOR Diplomats and Diplomacy book.

See the book trailer at

www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-wrBKbOSF8

Post

Channel Islands Maritime Museum Talk in Oxnard CA on 10/17/18, “Sea Captain and 1st Consul to Senegal” by Stephen H. Grant, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WX0dTNBs0s&feature=youtu.be

Praise

“Capt. Peter Strickland owes much to author Stephen H. Grant.”

Library of Congress.

“This book offers a vivid picture of the unique career of a New Englander who was a pioneer in the diplomatic field in French West Africa.”

The Day, New London, Connecticut.

“This is a great new historical source for Senegal, and for 19th century American shipping, trade, and foreign relations.”

University of Delaware Library.

“[This] interesting and informative book on a little known connection between this area [New London] and the West African country of Senegal . . . opens a window to a neglected aspect of trade in the nineteenth century.”

New London County Historical Society.

“Grant’s careful blending of historical hindsight with Strickland’s own words brings enormous value to our understanding of U.S. diplomacy.”

Foreign Service Journal.