Thomas Phillips was a white British sea captain who commanded the slave ship Hannibal on a late 17th‑century voyage in the Atlantic slave trade, and his account of the Middle Passage reflects his role as a profit‑seeking participant more than a humanitarian observer. His background as a slave‑ship captain and investor made him focus on financial loss, crew discomfort, and “pains and care” rather than the full horror experienced by the enslaved Africans.

Who Phillips Was

  • Thomas Phillips was about 29 years old when he captained the slave ship Hannibal , a large English slaving vessel operating in the Atlantic trade.
  • He kept a detailed journal of this voyage, later published in the 1730s, which has become a well‑known primary source on the Middle Passage.

His Role in the Slave Trade

  • Phillips was not a neutral observer; he was the commanding officer responsible for transporting enslaved Africans to the Americas to be sold for profit.
  • In his journal he calculated deaths in terms of monetary loss, noting how many enslaved people and crew members died and what that cost in pounds.

How His Background Shaped His Writing

  • As a slave‑ship captain , Phillips framed much of the suffering on board in terms of how it affected his business, lamenting disease and death because they reduced the number of people he could sell.
  • His concern for enslaved people often appears as concern for “cargo” preservation: he described feeding them, cleaning their quarters, and enduring the “stench” and “misery” largely as burdens on the crew rather than as atrocities committed against the captives.

Limits and Bias in His Perspective

  • Because he accepted slavery as normal and legal, Phillips did not fundamentally question the morality of the trade; this shaped his tone, which can sound matter‑of‑fact or even defensive about the conditions on board.
  • His account is therefore both revealing and biased: it offers vivid details about disease, overcrowding, and death in the Middle Passage, but it filters these details through the viewpoint of a man whose primary goal was to complete a profitable voyage.

TL;DR: Phillips was a British slave‑ship captain whose livelihood depended on the Atlantic slave trade, so his description of the Middle Passage highlights conditions, sickness, and death mainly as problems for profit and crew, not as an indictment of slavery itself.