Steve Woods"In April 1675, John Howe, a naval officer, sought to win Pepys support in his case that he had been wrongly deprived of a ship’s command after the death of its captain.
Howe wrote to Pepys to “crave your acceptance” of a “small” enslaved boy, which “I brought home on board for your honour … Hoping he is so well seasoned to endure the cold weather as to live in England.”
Pepys wrote back indignantly rejecting the offer. But Edwards argues this was not because of ethical concerns about slavery, but the optics of looking like a man who could be bribed."
