John Gabriel Stedman
John Gabriel Stedman | |
|---|---|
Portrait of Stedman standing over a maroon after the capture of the Surinamese village of Gado Saby from the frontispiece of his Narrative | |
| Born | 1744 |
| Died | 7 March 1797 (aged 52–53) |
| Occupation | Army officer, author |
| Period | 1790s |
| Genre | Autobiography adventure |
| Notable works | The Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam |
| Spouse | Adriana Wiertz van Coehorn, Joanna |
| Children | Johnny, Sophia Charlotte, Maria Joanna, George William, Adrian, and John Cambridge |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance | Dutch Republic Great Britain |
| Branch | Dutch States Army British Army |
| Service years | 1760–1778 (Dutch Republic) 1793–1796 (Great Britain) |
| Rank | Captain (Dutch Republic) Lieutenant colonel (Great Britain) |
| Unit | Scots Brigade Scotch Brigade |
John Gabriel Stedman (1744 – 7 March 1797) was a Dutch-British army officer and writer best known for writing The Narrative of a Five Years Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam (1796). This narrative covers his experience in Suriname between 1773 and 1777, where he was a soldier in a Dutch regiment deployed to assist colonial troops fighting against groups of maroons. He first recorded his experiences in a personal diary that he later rewrote and expanded into the Narrative. The Narrative was a bestseller of the time and, with its firsthand depictions of slavery and other aspects of colonialism, became an important tool in the fledgling abolitionist movement. When compared with Stedman's personal diary, his published Narrative is a sanitized and romanticized version of Stedman's time in Surinam.