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if need be, for the whole post.1817
Anglo-Spanish Anti-Slave trade Treaties, etc.
Every Spanish Vessel which shall be destined for the Slave Trade, on any Part ... of preventing all illicit Traffic in Slaves, on the Part of their respective Subjects, .... and with every attention which is due between allied and friendly nations; and ...
https://books.google.com/books/about/Journals_of_the_House_of_Commons.html?hl=ca&id=Th5DAAAAcAAJ
1821
That, notwithstanding the deliberate denunciation by which the Slave Trade was ... that this trade is still carried on, to an extent scarcely ever before surpassed by the ... the means recently stipulated for its suppression; but the time being at length arrived when Spain solemnly engaged that all Spanish Slave Trade should ...HANSARD'S PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES: THIRD SERIES, COMMENCING WITH THE ACCESSION OF WILLIAM IV. 1853.
p. 762 and ff.
https://books.google.es/books?id=c9tbAAAAQAAJ
Importation of Slaves into Cuba, May 30 1853
The EARL of CARLISLE rose to present a petition from ladies, inhabitants of Kingston and its vicinity, in the island of Jamaica, and to put a question to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs respecting the observance of the treaties relating to the slave trade by the Government of Spain. He said:
Your Lordships are aware that it is not much my disposition to obtrude myself unnecessarily upon your Lordships where I feel that I have no especial duty to perform; nevertheless, I felt myself called upon even before the recess to give a formal notice of my intention to present the petition which I now hold in my hand both because it is upon a subject with reference to which it seems to me that any appearance of indifference would be almost criminal, and also because I should have much liked to know whether my noble Friend at the head of the Foreign Office of this country, or any Member of Her Majesty's Government, any fresh information upon the point to which it mainly refers, and which constitutes its prayer.
This last object has, indeed, in some degree, been met by the conversation which took place upon the first evening when your Lordships reassembled after the recess, upon the occasion of a petition being presented by my noble and learned Friend now on the woolsack (Lord Brougham), and in whose wake, not for the first time in my life, I shall be proud to follow on the subject of the slave trade. He will not forget that I had the honour of sharing his triumphal return for the county of York — an occurrence which I shall always regard as the turning-point in that great emancipation struggle which has been brought to a victorious issue in this country.
Events which have occurred since that conversation give me a fresh inducement to offer a few observations in addition to the statements which were then made. I should first of all state that the petition which I hold in my hand is very numerously signed, and comes from “the undersigned ladies, inhabitants of Kingston and the vicinity, in the island of Jamaica;” and I certainly feel, my Lords, that slavery is a question upon which women have every motive, as they have shown that they have good qualifications, to bear their part. Those ladies state, that it is under a deep conviction of the enormities of slavery and the slave trade, as they exist in various parts of the world, but more especially in the adjacent island of Cuba, that they express their confidence in your Lordships' desire to enforce the fulfilment of those treaties with the Government of Spain, by which it was provided that that inhuman traffic should be finally extinguished.
They say that "nothing but a deep sense of the amount of the injury sustained would have induced them to come forth from the privacy of domestic life to endeavour, by every legitimate means, to rescue these unhappy persons from the wretchedness of their condition."
They also state that they "deem it their duty to add their testimony to the many representations already made by the clergy, ministers of the Gospel, and other inhabitants of Jamaica, in reference to the present depressed condition of all the interests in the island;" and "while they would not pretend to enter into the various causes to which it may be attributed, they cannot resist the conviction that the evils of which they complain have greatly increased since the alteration of the imperial policy respecting the British colonies, and the encouragement it gives to the cultivation of slave-grown productions."
I, my Lords, of course, cannot deny my own complicity in the adoption of that policy; and, at this time of day, I still feel great doubt whether, in the course I took in this matter, I was right or wrong. This I know, that in the whole course of my Parliamentary experience I never acquiesced in any measure with so much doubt or hesitation, and there is none with regard to which at this day I should be so glad to be quit of all responsibility. However, my Lords, after several successive Administrations, consisting, like the last, of persons wholly opposed, or, like the present Administration, of many who were also opposed to those original measures —after the results of that policy have been repeatedly under their consideration, and they find themselves unable to move in the matter, I certainly cannot entertain any expectation that there is any probability, or I will say possibility, of such policy being now reversed. The petitioners go on to state that " they therefore implore your Lordships to adopt such measures as in your wisdom may appear effective with the Spanish Government, in order to put an end for ever to the iniquitous operations still going on with the connivance of the Spanish authorities in Cuba, to the detriment of their own Government, and in violation of the solemn convention into which that Government entered with Great Britain for the extinction of' the slave trade."
My Lords, I think it cannot be said that the ladies of Jamaica, in expressing these complaints, have not great reason for doing so. It would be superfluous in me to remind your Lordships, even apart from the conversation which took place the other night, of the engagements under which Spain is now bound with this country in reference to the suppression of the slave trade. If your Lordships needed to be reminded of it, I could not refer you to any better quarter than to the despatch of the noble Earl the present Prime Minister, dated the 31st of December, 1843, in which the whole question is most fully, clearly, and forcibly set forth. It appears that by a treaty which dates so far back as 1817, which came into operation in 1820, and which was further confirmed and enlarged by subsequent treaties — in one of which the head of the Foreign Office took a distinguished part - Spain solemnly stipulated to suppress the slave trade upon the part of Spanish subjects; and in consideration of that treaty and that undertaking Spain received from this country the sum of 400,000l.
Now, my Lords, I fear there is no reason to doubt that ever since the passing of that treaty its provisions have been systematically, wilfully, and all but continuously violated. I fear that in the long series of captains general, or governors of Cuba, very few indeed can be named who have not received bribes or hush money, to use the plain terms, for every single slave landed upon the island of Cuba, through their guilty connivance. I believe, indeed, that Generals Valdes, Concha, and Tacon, might be quoted as honourable exceptions to a course so unworthy and so deserving the most serious animadversion; and considering the universality of the practice which had obtained, and the of the practice which had obtained, and the amount of temptation held out to them, these three officers do deserve to be mentioned with honour; but you can judge how dreadful that state of things must be when honour, in our opinion, does attach to persons merely because they have refused to enter into partnership with those whom I must look upon as the worst "manufacturers" of their species, and because they have not derived unlawful gains from fostering a traffic which, in my conscience, I believe has been the cause of more wrong and suffering than any other curse which ever blighted our globe, and which, in my mind, is sufficient in itself, even if reveation and reason had been altogether silent around us, to prove the necessity of a future state of retribution in which redress may be afforded for wrongs perpetrated with so much impunity in this life.
But, my Lords, I am bound to say that when I mention the long series of captains general who have so grossly violated the engagements of their country with ours, it is still more painful to me to state that I fear suspicion does not stop with them, but that it ascends to persons who occupy much higher positions. Of course I do not pretend to address any inquiries to my noble Friend opposite respecting the justice of such suspicions; and I admit that no one ought lightly to infer the "deep damnation" which must be the consequence of their truth.
But true is it, my Lords, that no sooner does any Captain General of Cuba show a disposition to respect the faith of treaties, and the laws alike of humanity and honour, than very speedily, for some reason or other, he is sure to be removed in order to give place to some less scrupulous and more accommodating functionary in his stead.
True it is, too, my Lords, I hear that under the present Captain General, Don Canedo, the slave trade is being carried on with unexampled vigour and audacity on the coasts of that unhappy island of Cuba, which, I can depose to by my own experience, our God has fitted to be a paradise, but which ever since the white man first set his foot there he has converted, I can use no softer phrase, into a hell.
I do not propose to dwell now, except for one moment, upon the case of the Emancipados - a class of men - consisting of those who were taken into the island since the treaty, and who were fully entitled to freedom under the stipulations of that treaty in their regard, but who, with a few exceptions, have been retained in slavery from that hour to the present, that slavery being the field labour of Cuba. I am aware that an announcement has lately been made that the Government of Spain would undertake to set immediately at liberty those who were entitled to their freedom in 1828, and, as to those who up to 1835 had been under contracts of service, that they should be set at liberty at the expiration of their respective periods of service.
But, my Lords, I feel that that concession, miserably short as it falls of what we had a right to expect and to exact, must be considered wholly illusory, as your Lordships will, I am sure, admit, when you remember that the calculation is, that the slave population of Cuba employed in field labour dies off in every recurring period of ten years. [A Noble LORD: Seven years] Seven years! But even if it were ten years, you may judge how few of those who were entitled to their freedom in 1828 and 1835 respectively will now be found able to avail themselves of this "timely" boon.
But if we direct our attention to the new and ever recurring importation of fresh negroes, what is the state of the facts of which we hear at present? I am informed that between the months of November and February last 5,000 slaves were landed in Cuba — that is, were known to be landed — and I fear that a great many landings take place in retired parts of the island of which we never hear.
Then, since I gave my original notice, there has been a landing of 1,100 negroes, who were kidnapped from a part of the Portuguese dominions in Africa, which has already been the subject of conversation in the House, and to which I need not further allude, except as to one point. I believe upon that occasion my noble Friend opposite (the Earl of Clarendon) stated that, through the exertions of our Consul in Cuba, to whose zeal and activity he paid a very just tribute, 300 of those slaves had been rescued from bondage. Now, I do not pause to inquire how satisfied we ought to feel at 300 being rescued, and 800 being left in hopeless servitude, because our experience of the proceedings of the Spanish Government has taught us to be thankful for small mercies. But, my Lords, can we be sure even that those 300 are effectually rescued — that they have been effectually restored to that liberty to which they are entitled? I should be glad to learn from my noble Friend that they are.
I see, however, that such is not the opinion entertained by the persons who wrote the account of the transaction which appeared in the American journals. After giving an account of the landing of the slaves, of the exertions of our Consul, and of the inquiry consequently instituted, the account goes on to say: —
"The Government inquiry, as was to be anticipated, ended in additional fraud and corruption. Neither the Captain nor any of the crew have been arrested. The investigation was confined to the partners, and the defendants agreed to compromise their crime by delivering 300 of the negroes to the Government. The result has only made the insular Government a larger participator in the profits of the iniquity. Some few of the negroes were released, and the rest allowed to pass into the mass of hopeless negro servitude."
I understand, from the account which I perused of what transpired the other evening, that my noble Friend himself stated that by the laws of Cuba — such laws as are observed there — it is impossible to follow the slaves into the interior when they have once passed into the possession of any proprietor, and are there enrolled among the rest of the gangs. I find it is part of the law of 1845, passed in Spain professedly with the view of putting down tho slave trade, that it is in fact an express stipulation that in no case, and at no time, shall it be permitted to institute any proceedings against, nor molest in their possession, the proprietors of slaves, under the pretext of their origin or procedency. A precious stipulation for relief that is, which effectually shuts the door to all inquiry after those poor wretches are consigned to the miseries of a tropical servitude!
Then it is suspected that in the island of Cuba this system - I was inclined to call it a “dodge,” were it a proper word to apply where so much suffering forms the topic - is frequently resorted to. On those plantations on which Emancipados are employed upon contracts of servitude, when one of the original slaves whom it would be lawful to keep in servitude dies, the name of an Emancipado is returned to the Government in his stead, and the Emancipado is transferred into the name and place of the slave who died, so as effectually to put a stop to all further inquiry. Now, when we are told that these things take place - and I fear where there are slave-traders and slaveowners, and, I must add, where the Spanish Government arc concerned - you must take for granted that all that may be done or can be done, will be done.
I would very earnestly recommend it to the attention of Her Majesty's Government whether they could not give directions - I cannot take upon myself to say whether, under the existing law, they have not the power; but if they have not the power, whether they could not, by negotiations with Spain, acquire the power - to send the captured slavers, not into the slave courts, or before the mixed commission of the Havanah, where, even if a condemnation takes place - and I do not believe that so much complaint exists upon that ground, or that the mixed commission court, on the whole, does not perform its duty - but even if it does do its duty, it turns out out to be much the same thing for the slave as if no capture or condemnation had taken place at all - but into some free court for adjudication. I wish to know whether, instead of sending the captured slavers into a slave port for adjudication, they cannot be sent to some free port, before some untrammelled mixed commission, where justice is sure to be done?
I have mentioned the 5,000 slaves who were imported into Cuba between November and February, and tho 1,100 who were the subject of conversation here the other evening. Since then I have read in an American paper that 600 more slaves have been landed in Cuba in the open day, near Matanzas — the same slaves, I imagine, whom my noble Friend incidentally mentioned the other night.
Amid all these disgraceful and revolting proceedings it is most satisfactory and refreshing to find how efficiently our gallant naval service is discharging its duty in these seas. The noble Lord mentioned the other evening that in the course of this year six slavers have been taken on the coast of Cuba. Three of those slavers were taken in one day by Captain Hamilton, of Her Majesty's war steamer Vestal; and I have had the good fortune to read an account of the transaction, written by an eye-witness, which presents some of the most striking illustrations I have ever perused of British heroism on its most congenial element, and which I cannot refrain from describing to your Lordships....
p. 771-772
Indeed, I am not without hope that his [the Earl of Clarendon's] intimate acquaintance with, his profound knowledge of the Spanish people, their habits and character, may give him some facilities and advantages in the matter, which were not enjoyed by any of his predecessors. My noble friend will, I am sure, not deny that gross derelictions of their duty have been frequently manifested on the part of the Spanish Government.
Why, talk of causes of war with Spain, sure I am that this country has been over and over again embroiled in long and ruinous war on grounds which, in my judgment, were absolutely paltry in comparison with this. Let me not be understood as expressing an opinion that this country is called upon to go to war with Spain, even for the suppression of the slave trade. I know the apathy and indifference which prevail among a large proportion of the inhabitants of this country on all such external topics, and that many of those who feel most zealously and ardently on the subject would be the foremost to discourage our having recourse to a violent physical mode of interference...
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[Smuggling]
Convention of Pardo 1939 (Smuggling)
Breach of convention. 1739, "... Many circumstances, my Lords, concur to render this a fit Opportunity of making War upon that insulting Power. We have now Generals, we have Admirals alive, who have seen ..."
https://books.google.es/books?id=O2MxAAAAIAAJ
(1739)
The Earl of Chesterfield said:
My Lords, I shall deliver myself to your lordships in the same manner as if the question itself were put, lest I should not have another opportunity of speaking on this subject. The state of this nation, my Lords, is a very complicated subject, and requires that we should look farther back than the present juncture. Our melancholy Situation is owing to a Series of Misconduct for many Years past. This Kingdom has paid immense Sums towards the Support of the Government, without receiving the least Advantage in return. Are our Manufactures improved? Is our trade extended? Have the arts of peace been cultivated among us, during the long expensive peace we have enjoyed? No! they are all visibly gone to decay. Have we suffered these to go to decay, in order to reduce a formidable Enemy, or to quell domestick Insurrections? No! Our Enemies are more insolent and powerful than ever, and domestic insurrections we have had none. Even at this instant, my Lords, Spain continues her depredations with more violence than ever, and yet the people of these nations are willing to contribute their last shilling, to enable the government to support its own honour.
This last insult, my Lords, we have received, is of a Piece with the rest of her Conduct, for these 20 Years past. What could we expect after submitting to the terms of the Convention, after submitting to reduce the demands of our merchants very near one half, after submitting to accept of their infamous protest, and after submitting to deduct 45,000 l. for the prompt Payment of what will never be paid?
The noble Duke has told us, that we don't know what Part a neighbouring Power may take, if we should proceed to violent Measures. Let her take what Part she will, my Lords, we can be in no worse Situation than we are. But what Part can she take? She cannot look us in the face at sea; she cannot prevent our seizing the Spanish plate-fleet; she cannot reclaim one farthing of the effects, if we should seize them, because they are all entered in Spanish names; and therefore it will become our lawful prize.
But, says the noble duke, We are not yet ready.
What, not ready, my Lords, at this time of day? Whose fault is that? Has the government been refused any thing it has asked to strengthen his Majesty's hands? Or has any thing happened that was not both foreseen and foretold? I remember, my Lords, it was foretold that this Money never, would be paid; and what was the answer? It was insisted on, that we were so formidable that Spain never would dare to refuse to pay it. The whole merit of the Convention was put on that single point. Can you doubt, said they, that Spain has disavowed her depredations, when here she pays Damages for them? Habetis consitentem reum: Sure she'll never pretend to insult us for the future.
But, my Lords, we see she has not only not paid it, but holds us so much in Contempt, that she wont so much as give a Reason for her Refusal. By this, my Lords, she has given the lie to every argument advanced in favour of the Convention, and I hope we shall not act so far below the dignity of this House, as to refuse to put a question upon a fact that is on all hands acknowledged to be true. This, my Lords, would give every foreign power, and every man in the kingdom without doors, a more contemptible opinion of us, than they have ever yet had of the ministry.
Let us, therefore, my Lords, as a noble lord said, with a spirit worthy of the blood and name he bears, for once speak the sense of the nation, and endeavour to regain by our arms, what we have lost by our councils. Let us lay before his Majesty the true state of the nation, that he may no longer be imposed upon by those who have so notoriously betrayed her interest, and disregarded his honour.
The Earl of Cholmondeley:
My Lords; if I thought that our putting the main question could be of any service, either to his Majesty or the kingdom, no lord should more readily agree to it than myself. But as I am persuaded that it might be a detriment to both, and could, in no event, be of any advantage to either, I must beg leave to be against it.
The noble lord, who spoke first, said very rightly, that Spain, by not complying with the payment of the 95.000 l. had forfeited a great many advantages of much superior consideration, which she might have had if she had paid it.
My Lords, this is one reason, to me, for thinking that Spain is not so unprovided of alliances and forces as we flatter ourselves, otherwise she would never have done so impolitic, so unjust a thing. And, my Lords, give me leave to say that if we should attack the Spanish Plate-fleet, Spain would be the least sufferer, the loss must come upon us and our allies, so that all we should gain, must be the ill-will of our neighbours, and the ruin of our merchants.
A noble Lord who spoke in the Debate, said, that we were to consider all the effects in that fleet, if seized, as lawful prize, because entered in Spanish names. They are so, my Lords; but we know it has been always understood, that so much of these effects as belonged to other nations, have been as much their own Property, as if they had been actually entered in their own Names; and that, before now, they could have been both reclaimed and restored as such.
Therefore, my Lords, as I see no Good that can attend our putting the main Question, I hope your Lordships will agree to our putting the previous Question.
https://books.google.es/books?id=OoVYAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA234&lpg=PA234&dq=%22powerful+than+ever,+and+domestic+insurrections+we+have+had+none.+Even+at+this+instant,+my+Lords,+Spain+continues+her%22&source=bl&ots=koYOabNE68&sig=ACfU3U1ZqYy23k6Y7cHueh0zlWIevXLCSQ&hl=ca&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi-kbXqurLjAhWHEBQKHQTKCQgQ6AEwAHoECAIQAQ
See also: https://liberatedafricans.org/courts.php
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Profit and Loss
Episode 1 of 2
In 1834 Britain abolished slavery, a defining and celebrated moment in our national history. What has been largely forgotten is that abolition came at a price. The government of the day took the extraordinary step of compensating the slave owners for loss of their 'property', as Britain's slave owners were paid £17bn in today's money, whilst the slaves received nothing.
For nearly 200 years, the meticulous records that detail this story have lain in the archives virtually unexamined - until now. In an exclusive partnership with University College London, historian David Olusoga uncovers Britain's forgotten slave owners. Forensically examining the compensation records, he discovers the range of people who owned slaves and the scale of the slavery business.
What the records reveal is that the slave owners were not just the super-rich. They were widows, clergymen and shopkeepers - ordinary members of the middle-classes who exploited slave labour in distant lands. Yet many of them never looked a slave in the eye or experienced the brutal realities of plantation life.
In Barbados, David traces how Britain's slave economy emerged in the 17th century from just a few pioneering plantation owners. As David explores the systemic violence of slavery, in Jamaica he is introduced to some of the brutal tools used to terrorise the slaves and reads from the sadistic diaries of a notorious British slave owner. Elsewhere, on a visit to the spectacularly opulent Harewood House in Yorkshire, he glimpses how the slave owners' wealth seeped into every corner of Britain.
Finally, amongst the vast slave registers that record all 800,000 men, women and children in British hands at the point of abolition, David counts the tragic human cost of this chapter in our nation's history.
The Price of Freedom
Episode 2 of 2
Historian David Olusoga continues his examination of Britain's forgotten slave owners. In this episode, David explores how in 1834 the government arrived at the extraordinary decision to compensate the slave owners with the equivalent of £17 billion in today's money. Tracing the bitter propaganda war waged between the pro-slavery lobby and the abolitionists, he reveals that paying off the slave owners for the loss of their human property was, ultimately, the only way to bring the system to an end.
Meticulously kept records held at the National Archives detail the names of the 46,000 slave owners from across the British empire who had a slice of this vast handout. Combined with new research, shared exclusively with the BBC by University College London, it reveals more about Britain's slave owners than we've ever known before.
Of the 46,000 names in the 1834 compensation records, 3,000 lived in Britain, yet they owned half of the slaves across the empire and pocketed half of the compensation money. These include members of the clergy and of the House of Lords. The records also show that at the point of abolition, more than 40 per cent of all the slave owners were women.
David goes on to investigate what happened to the wealth generated by the slave system and compensation pay out. He reveals aspects of Britain's spectacular industrialisation in the 19th century, the consolidation of the City of London as a world centre of finance, and a number of the country's most well-known institutions that all have links to slave-derived wealth.
Ultimately, David discovers that the country's debt to slavery is far greater than previously thought, shaping everything from the nation's property landscape to its ideas about race. A legacy that can still be felt today.
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