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ABSTRACT
This essay explores the careers of two British consuls on different sides of the globe, David Turnbull in Cuba and Lyons McLeod in Mozambique, both engaged in a long-running battle against the illegal slave trade. Consuls were often on the frontlines of efforts to police the trade, but they faced serious opposition from slave traders and government officials who often received bribes and kickbacks to turn a blind eye to the traffic. Far removed from their mother countries, these outposts of empire often operated in ways that contradicted imperial policies, practices that led to a level of corruption that amounted to state capture, a situation that helps explain why stopping the illegal slave trade was so problematic.
Acknowledgements
The author thanks the anonymous referees and the participants and organizers of the Comparative Abolitions Conference held at the University of Leeds in 2017. Special thanks to Jesús Sanjurjo for his assistance with the publication process.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Randy J. Sparks is Professor of History and Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Tulane University. He is the author five book and many articles and book chapters focused on the history of the U.S. South and the Atlantic World. His publications include Africans in the Old South: Mapping Exceptional Lives Across the Atlantic World (Harvard, 2016); Where the Negroes are Masters: An African Port in the Era of the Slave Trade (Harvard, 2013) and The Two Princes of Calabar: An Eighteenth-Century Atlantic Odyssey (Harvard, 2004).
Notes
1 Huzzey, Freedom Burning, 40.
2 Ibid., 43.
3 Ibid., 45–50, 62–63. On British consuls see Dickie, The British Consul; Hamilton, “Zelots and Helots,” 20–41.
4 Huzzey, Freedom Burning, 51.
5 Eltis, Economic Growth, 210–211; Horne, Race to Revolution, 28–64; Schneider, “African Slavery and Spanish Empire,” 3–29; Marques, The United States and the Transatlantic Slave Trade to the Americas, 122–126, 136–138.
6 Kaufman, “Corruption Matters,” 20–23; Hellman, Jones, and Kaufmann, “Seize the State, Seize the Day,” 9–37; Grzymala–Busse, “Beyond Clientelism,” 638–673; Klimina, “Toward an Evolutionary–Institutionalist Concept of State Capture,” 371–380.
7 O’Hara, “Political Economy of Systemic and Micro-Corruption,” 289, 297.
8 Grzymala-Busse, “Beyond Clientelism,” 640.
9 Buxton, Political Economy of Narcotics, 129.
10 Turnbull, Travels in the West, 395–396.
11 Quiroz, “Implicit Cost of Empire,” 476–481; Eltis, Economic Growth, 117–118; Thomas, The Slave Trade, 637, 665, 667–669; Murray, Odious Commerce, 109, 131–154; Corwin, Spain and the Abolition of Slavery in Cuba, 178; Barcia, “‘Fully Capable of Any Iniquity,’” 303–324.
12 Quiroz, “Implicit Cost of Empire,” 473; Barcia, “Sugar, Slavery and Bourgeoisie,” 145–155; Tomich, “Invention of Cuban Mill,” 133–150; Ortega, “Cuban Merchants,” 225–251; Bergad, García, and Barcia, The Cuban Slave Market, 27–32; Ortega, “From Obscurity to Notoriety,” 287–304; Marquese, Parron, and Berbel, Slavery and Politics, 129–130, 142–154.
13 Due to higher importations of males, the enslaved population did not grow by natural increase and relied on imports from Africa. Bergad, García, and Barcia, The Cuban Slave Market, 27, 30, 39.
14 Sofela, Emancipados, 50–51. For further information on the Cuban slave market see Bergad, García, and Barcia, The Cuban Slave Market.
15 Eltis, Economic Growth, 81. He acknowledged, however, that the actions of one nation would not have had much effect.
16 Commander Tucker to Mr. More O’Ferrall. H.M.S, Wolverine, at Sea, 29 September 1840, Correspondence with Spain, Portugal, Brazil, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the Argentine Confederation, relative to the slave trade. From January 1 to December 31 1841 Inclusive. Class B. (London: William Clowes and Sons, 1842), 90.
17 de Montaud, “En los borrosos confines,” 159–192; Thomas, Slave Trade, 606–608; Sofela, Emancipados, 212.
18 “Resettlement Demographics in the Caribbean,” Liberated Africans database. Accessed July 9, 2019.
19 Turnbull, The Jamaica Movement, 133 (first quotation), 135 (second quotation); Quiroz, “Implicit Costs of Empire,” 488; Palmerston to George Villiers. London, 8 August 1837. National Archives of the United Kingdom (hereafter TNA), Records of the Colonial Office (hereafter CO), 318/140; Villiers to Don Embio de Bardaza y Azara, Madrid, 25 September 1839. TNA, CO, 318/140; Villiers to Palmerston. Madrid, 7 January 1838. TNA, CO, 318/140.
20 Everett, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, 362; Palmerston to Villiers. London, 8 August 1837. TNA, CO, 318/140.
21 Turnbull to Palmerston. Havana, 30 December 1840. TNA, CO, 318/151.
22 Turnbull to the Court of Mixed Commission, “The Humble Petition of Gavino.” Havana, 13 January 1841. TNA, CO, 318/153. He was placed with Doña Maria Luisa de la Paz. He became one of the aguadores, water-carriers, whose occupation involved going to a public fountain, filling two small barrels with water, carrying it from house to house, and selling it in the neighborhood. It was considered hard work; he earned one dollar per day, a sum he turned over to the widow.
23 Garcia, Beyond the Walled City, 98–107.
24 Turnbull to Commissioners for the Suppression of the Slave Trade. Havana, 4 January 1841; Turnbull to the Court of Mixed Commission, “The Humble Petition of Gavino.” Havana, 13 January 1841. TNA, CO, 318/153; Sofela, Emancipados, 220–221; Burton, Ambivalence and Postcolonial Subject, 102; Grzymala-Busse, “Beyond Clientelism,” 662–664.
25 Palmerston to Aston. London, 4 March 1841 (quotations); Aston to Don Joaquim Maria de Ferrer. Madrid, 22 March 1841. House of Commons Parliamentary Papers (Hereafter HCPP), Correspondence with British Commissioners, at Sierra Leone, the Havana, Rio de Janerio and Surinam Relating to the Slave Trade, January 1 to December 31, 1842, Inclusive. Class A. (London: William Clowes and Sons, 1843), Vol. 2, 15–16.
26 Turnbull to the Court of Mixed Commission. Havana, 13 January 1841 (quotation). TNA, CO, 318/151. Turnbull sent fourteen petitions from emancipados who had been illegally enslaved to the Earl of Aberdeen in December 1841. See Turnbull to Aberdeen. Havana, 24 December 1841. HCPP: Correspondence with British Commissioners … January 1 to December 31, 1842, 86–101.
27 Kennedy and Dalrymple to the Earl of Aberdeen. Havana, 25 January 1842. HCPP: Correspondence with British Commissioners … January 1 to December 31, 1842, 129–130; Corwin, Spain and Abolition, 79.
28 Valdes to Her Majesty’s Commissioners. Havana, 1 April 1842. Ibid., 151–152.
29 Joseph Crawford to the Earl of Malmesbury. Havana, 1 January 1853. TNA, FO, 313/24. There were 403 men, 194 women, and 143 children.
30 Sofela, Emancipados, 200–224.
31 HCPP: Report from the Select Committee on Africa (Western Coast), Together with the Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of Evidence, and Appendix (London: House of Commons, 1865), 191.
32 Turnbull to Cockburn. Havana, 20 January 1841. HCPP, Correspondence with Spain, Portugal, Brazil, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the Argentine Confederation, Relative to the Slave Trade. From January 1 to December 31, 1841 Inclusive. Class B. (London: William Clowes and Sons, 1842), 77.
33 Palmerston to Aston. London, 24 May 1841, with enclosures, Ibid., 75–85 (quotations on p. 75).
34 Valdez to Turnbull. Havana, 1 January 1842. TNA, CO, 318/157.
35 Turnbull to Palmerston. Havana, 30 December 1840. TNA, CO, 318/151.
36 Turnbull to Russell. Havana, 29 December 1840. TNA, CO, 318/148.
37 Aston to Earl of Aberdeen. Madrid, 22 April 1842. TNA, CO, 318/157 (quotations).
38 Antonio Gonzales to Aston. Madrid, 24 March 1842. TNA, CO, 318/157. Murray, Odious Commerce, 153–154.
39 Crawford to Turnbull. Havana, 25 July 1842. TNA, CO, 318/157.
40 Geronimo Valdez to Crawford. Havana, 27 July 1842. TNA, CO, 318/157.
41 Turnbull to Lord Stanley. Havana, 14 July 1842. TNA, CO, 318/157.
42 Turnbull to Stanley. Nassau, 3 September 1842. TNA, CO, 318/157.
43 James Stephens to Charles Trevelyan. London, 12 November 1842. TNA, CO, 318/154; Turnbull to Lord Stanley. Nassau, 30 September 1842. TNA, CO, 318/157.
44 Ibid., Stanley to Turnbull. London, 12 October 1842; Turnbull to Stanley. Nassau, 17 September 1842; Crawford to John Bidwell. Havana, 5 November 1842. TNA, CO, 318/157. Turnbull, Jamaica Movement, 212–221.
45 Turnbull, Jamaica Movement, 231; “Copia Carta Al Parecer de Jose Gabriel del Castillo Dirigida al Jefe de Los Archivos De Cuba, Suministradole Datos Acerca de la Prision de Mr. David Tirnbull y su Expulsion de Cuba en 1824,” Archivo Nacional de Cuba (Hereafter ANC), Donativos y Remisiones, Caja 422, No. 44.
46 Crawford to Bidwell. Havana, 8 November 1842. TNA, CO, 318/157.
47 Paquette, Sugar is Made; Rafael Marquese, Tamis Parron, and Marcia Berbel also argue that Turnbull was the organizer of the plot. See Slavery and Politics, 205–206. For a more skeptical appraisal see Curry-Machado, “How Cuba Burned,” 71–93; Finch, Rethinking Slave Rebellion and Barcia, Seeds of Insurrection. I agree with Barcia who concluded that “African-born slaves had enough knowledge of warfare to fight their own battles without needing […] British abolitionist to teach them that slavery was not a good thing and that it was simple logic to offer resistance to it […]” (131).
48 Slave Voyages, https://www.slavevoyages.org/voyages/ChKAHZ6H; Martínez-Fernández, Fighting Slavery in the Caribbean, 46–50.
49 “An Old Soldier Neglected;” Doulton, “‘The Flag that Sets Us Free,’” 102–104, 115.
50 Newitt, History of Mozambique, 248; Klein, Atlantic Slave Trade, 71–72; Slave Voyages, https://www.slavevoyages.org/voyages/ChKAHZ6H.
51 Newitt, History of Mozambique, 164, 173, 244–250, 268; Hill, “Abolition African Slave Trade,” 174–175; Bethell, Abolition Brazilian Slave Trade, 360–365; Meirs, Britain and Ending, 23–25; Klein, Atlantic Slave Trade, 72; Paquette, Imperial Portugal, 360–371; Alexandre, “The Portuguese Empire,” 110–132; Alpers, “On Becoming,” 45–61; Harries, “Hobgoblins of the Middle Passage,” 39.
52 Palmerston to General Alava. London, 22 April 1839; and Rebello de Carvalho to Palmerston, 8 February 1839. HCPP: Correspondence with Foreign Powers, Parties to the Conventions between Great Britain and France Relating to the Slave Trade, 1838–9. Class C. (London: William Clowes and Sons, 1839), 12–13, 40–41.
53 Hill, “Abolition African Slave Trade,” 174–175; Meirs, Britain and Ending, 23–25; Klein, Atlantic Slave Trade, 72; Paquette, Imperial Portugal, 360–371; Alexandre, “The Portuguese Empire,” 110–132; Alpers, “On Becoming,” 45–61; Society of Friends, An Exposition of the African Slave Trade, 15–17.
54 Testimony of B. H Bunce, 29 July 1853, Report from the Select Committee on Slave Trade Treaties: Together with the Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of Evidence. (London: House of Commons, 1853), vii (quotation), 110, 115, 253; Graden, Disease, Resistance and Lies, 161; Barnard, A Three Years’ Cruize, 9–10, 37, 51–52, 256–257.
55 Livingstone, Narrative of an Expedition, 445.
56 Emmer, Colonialism and Migration.
57 Earl Cowley to the Earl of Clarendon. London, 7 September 1857. HCPP, Correspondence with British Commissioners at Sierra Leone, Havana, The Cape of Good Hope, and Loanda; and Reports from British Naval Officers Relating to the Slave Trade From April 1, 1857, to March 31, 1858. Class A. (London: Harrison and Sons, 1858), 141.
58 Ibid., Stanziani, Labor on the Fringes, 139, 201; Isaacman and Rosenthal, “Slaves, Soldiers, and Police,” 228; Broich, Squadron, Chapter 13.
59 McLeod, Travels in Eastern Africa, I, 294 (quotation), 327.
60 Alpers, Ivory and Slaves; Northrup, Indentured Labor, 26–28; Nwulia, Britain and Slavery, 24–25.
61 Newitt, History of Mozambique, 251. On the abolition debate in Portugal see Marques, The Sounds of Silence.
62 Her Majesty’s Commissioners to the Earl of Malmesbury. Cape Town, 13 September 1858. HCPP, Correspondence with British Ministers and Agents in Foreign Countries, and with Foreign Ministers in England, Relating to the Slave Trade. From April 1, 1858, to March 31, 1859. Class B. (London: Harrison and Sons, 1859), 29–31.
63 “Evidence of Aduramane Ibraim,” Ibid., 35–37; Harms, “Introduction,” 1–6.
64 Her Majesty’s Commissioners to the Earl of Malmesbury. Cape Town, 13 September 1858, HCPP, Correspondence with British Ministers and Agents … Relating to the Slave Trade. From April 1, 1858, to March 31, 1859, 30, 38–73.
65 McLeod, Travels in Eastern Africa, I: 324–329.
66 Earl of Clarendon to Mr. Howard. London, 5 January 1858. HCPP: Correspondence with British Ministers … From April 1, 1858, to March 31, 1859, 219.
67 Mr. Howard to the Marquis de Loulé. Lisbon, 16 January 1858; Ibid., 221–223.
68 Mr. Wilson to Captain Gordon. Durban, 6 July 1857, Ibid., 48–49.
69 George Frere and Frederic R. Surtees to Earl of Clarendon. Cape Town, 31 October 1857, Ibid., 50.
70 Her Majesty’s Commissioners to Lord J. Russell. Havana, 5 December 1859, Correspondence with the British Commissioners at Sierra Leone, Havana, the Cape of Good Hope, and Loanda; and Reports from British Vice-Admiralty Courts, and from British Naval Officers, Relating to the Slave Trade from April 1, 1859, to March 31, 1860. Class A. (London: Harrison and Sons, 1860), 11–12.
71 Joseph Crawford to Lord J. Russell. Havana, 3 December 1860. HCPP: Class B. Correspondence … April 1, 1859, to March 31, 1860.
72 McLeod, Travels in Eastern Africa: II, 1–2, 8–24 (quotation on p. 24). See correspondence labeled “Portugal.” HCPP, Correspondence with British Ministers … From April 1, 1858 to March 31, 1859, 101–134. Chatterjee and Eaton, eds., Slavery South Asian History, 249–250; Mr. Paget to the Earl of Clarendon. Lisbon, 25 July 1857. HCPP: Class B. Correspondence with British ministers … April 1, 1857, to March 31, 1858, 206.
73 McLeod, Travels in Eastern Africa, II: 85–90, 127–136 (quotation on p. 136).
74 Anti-Slavery Reporter, August 1, 1860
75 “Testimonial to Mr. McLeod,” Anti-Slavery Reporter, 2 April 1860.
76 Huzzey, Freedom Burning, 147–160; Glyn Stone, “The Foreign Office and Forced Labour,” 165–195.
77 Eltis, Economic Growth, 82, 90, 152.
78 Hellman, Jones, Kaufman, and Schankerman, Measuring Governance, Corruption, 3 (first quotation), 4 (second quotation).