Spanish sailors and the illegal slave trade to Cuba, 1845-1867

ABSTRACT

The signing of treaties between Spain and Great Britain (in 1817 and 1835) and the subsequent passing in 1845 of the Criminal Act did not serve to end slave trade, as intended. Instead the only consequence of the treaties was to make it illegal and to maintain it with the participation of a wide range of actors and a large contingent of sailors of diverse origins and nationalities, many of whom were Spanish. In this article we analyze the living circumstances of the crews of Spanish slave-trade ships between 1845 and 1867, its greatest boom period and one of the most remarkable chapters of the social history of Spanish merchant marine. This article draws on documentary sources unpublished until today.

KEYWORDS:

• Transatlantic slave trade
• slave ships
• crews
• Cuba
• Spain

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. On the detention and interrogation of the sailors Pancho Hernández, Francisco Rodríguez, and Luis Fernández, see the Archivo Nacional de Cuba [Cuban National Archives, or ANC], Miscelánea de Expedientes, legajo 3747 AV.

2. In the last ten years a number of studies have been published that have allowed us to renew our knowledge of the slave trade in Cuba. See Piqueras (2011), Fradera and Schmidt-Nowara (2013), Zeuske (2015), Nerín (2015), and Barcia and Kesidou (2018). Two recent collective books have also analysed the study of Spanish participation in the slave trade to Cuba, see Rodrigo and Chaviano (2017), and Rodrigo and Cózar (2018).

3. We have several recent studies that have analysed the transatlantic slave trade at the time of the suppression, both for Brazil and especially for Cuba, from different points of view. For example: Marques (2015), Harris (2016) and Fett (2017).

4. House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, Slave Trade, Class A. Correspondence with the British Commissioners at Sierra Leone, Havana, the Cape of God Hope, Loanda and New York and reports from British Vice-Admiralty Courts and from British Naval Officers relating to Slave Trade, From January 1, to December, 31, 1865, London, 1866 p. 10–12. On Dulce’s action against the slave trade in Cuba, see Sanjurjo (2018), 256–258.

5. The names and physical descriptions of the three ship’s officers given by the arrested sailors don’t completely agree with each other. Compared to the characterization offered by Francisco Rodríguez, Pancho Hernández’s description states: Captain Vicente, who was tall, heavy set, with a trimmed blond beard, was Portuguese, but he spoke a bit of Spanish; the navigator was named José, was short, spoke Spanish, although not very well, was thin and around 50 to 55 years of age; the quartermaster, whose name I don’t know because onboard he was only called our boss, was about 32 years old, of average height, and had but little beard”. Luis Fernández stated that the captain was named Juan (not Vicente) and was “tall, heavy set, with a dark complexion”. In the name of the navigator he coincides with Pancho Hernández, who also stated he was called José.

6. A recent thought-suggesting analysis of disease in the slave trade in Barcia (2020).

7. Two good books about illegal “alijos de bozales” in Cuba are Meriño and Perera (2015) and Barcia (2017).

8. ANC Miscelánea de Expedientes, legajo 3740 A. According to the sailor Silvestre Gonzalez: “He said that a young negro came, the son of the king of some country, who entrusted his son to the captain and gave the captain some slaves to sell in Havana”. Asked if they knew Singa, two of the slaves said yes, “That he was the son of Mangobo Fernando of the Congo, and that he came in the same ship as they, serving as the captain’s aid”.

9. Archivo Historico de Protocolos de Barcelona, Escribania de Marina, J. M. Planas Compte, manual de 1839, 205 r-206 v, 16.03.1839; fols. 209 r-210 r, 18.03.1839. Another example that supports the higher remuneration of slave crews is found in the contract of the frigate Hermosa Cubana, a ship registered in Santiago de Cuba. It sailed for Cuba a few weeks after the Si and the Estrella, and its experienced sailors received 13 pesos a month, while the less experience received 10 a month: For another comparison see Archivo Historico de Protocolos de Barcelona, Escribania de Marina, J.M. Planas Compte, manual de 1839, fol. 274, 26.04.1839.

10. The figure of 122 slaves landed (and only 85 captured) comes from House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, Slave Trade, Class A. Correspondence with the British Commissioners at Sierra Leone, Havana, the Cape of Good Hope and Loanda and reports from British Naval Officers relating to Slave Trade, From 1 April 1857 to March, 31, 1858, p. 44.

11. ANC, Miscelánea de Expedientes, legajo 3470A.

12. Ibidem.

13. Ibidem.

14. Archivo Historico Nacional (henceforth, AHN) Estado, legajo 8042, document 5 (13).

15. Gaceta de Madrid, 3 March 1845, p.1.

16. AHN, Estado, legajo 8042, document 5 (45).

17. Ibidem.

18. AHN, Estado, legajo 8043, document 1 (2).

19. AHN, Estado, legajo 8042, document 5 (45).

20. There is a wealth of information regarding the Havana slave market in the nineteenth century in Zeuske (2017), 351–391.

21. AHN, Estado, legajo 8042, document 2: Mr. Kennedy also stated that he had known that Mr. Zulueta and Mr. Parejo had outfitted two ships for the slave trade, and had gone to the Captain General to solicit his blessings in the matter”.

22. AHN, Estado, legajo 8033, document 12. Two monographic studies about (three) Mixed Commision Courts: Arnalte (1992) and Nelson (2015).

23. Gaceta de Madrid, 3 March 1845, p. 1.

24. AHN, Estado, legajo 8048, 16 (3).

25. Ibidem.

26. AHN, Estado, legajo 8048, 16 (4).

27. A summary of Whydah’s activity as a slave port, in Law (2004).

28. A brief biographic sketch of Gaspar Roig appears in Rodrigo (2017).

29. AHN, Estado, legajo 8047, doc. 18 (2).

30. Ibidem.

31. An analysis of the negotiations between Spain and Great Britain for the abolition of the slave trade in Murray (1990).