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Statistics of the Slave Trade to Cuba, 1790–1867

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

D. R. Murray
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Extract

The most recent as well as the most comprehensive book on the statistics of the Atlantic slave trade has been written by Professor Philip D. Curtin. The Atlantic Slave Trade, A Census is a work which applies modern techniques and sophisticated analysis to the very difficult historical problem of the magnitude of the Atlantic slave trade. As Curtin himself states: ‘The dimensions of the nineteenth century slave trade have always been a matter of controversy — political controversy at the time and historical controversy since’. Professor Curtin's book will not put an end to the controversy, but it does suggest further areas for research. More work needs to be done on the historical sources from which the statistics of the slave trade are derived. This article examines the main sources available for assessing the importation of slaves into Cuba from 1790 to 1867 and analyses the statistics which these sources yield in the light of Curtin's conclusions.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 3 , Issue 2 , November 1971 , pp. 131 - 149
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

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References

1 Curtin, Philip D., The Atlantic Slave Trade, A Census (Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1969).Google Scholar

2 Ibid., p. 231.

3 One very good example of recent work along this line is Bethell, Leslie, The Abolition of the Brazilian Slave Trade; Britain, Brazil and the Slave Trade Question 1807–1869 (Cambridge University Press, 1970), pp. 388–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 The material for this article is taken from a nearly completed monograph entitled ‘Britain, Spain and the Abolition of the Slave Trade to Cuba’. The research was made possible by a grant from the Canada Council.

5 Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid (hereafter cited as AHN), estado, legajo 8.038, ‘Real cédula de su magestad concediendo libertad para el comercio de negros con la isla de Cuba, Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico, y Provincia de Caracas, a españoles y extrangeros, baxo las reglas que se expresan’, 28 February 1789. See also King, James Ferguson, ‘Evolution of the Free Slave Trade Principle in Spanish Colonial Administration’, Hispanic American Historical Review, 22 (1942), 34–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 AHN, estado, legajo 8.038, ‘Real cédula concediendo libertad para el comercio de negros con los virreinatos de Santa Fé, Buenos Ayres, Capitania gral. de Caracas, e islas de Santo Domingo, Cuba y Puerto Rico a españoles y extrangeros baxo las reglas que se expresan’, 24 11 1791.

7 Archivo General de Indias, Seville, Indiferente general, legajo 2770, ‘Real cédula sobre continuación del comercio de negros, y prórroga de su introducción, en la forma que se expresa’, 22 April 1804.

8 The text of the treaty can be found in British and Foreign State Papers, 4 (1816–1817), 33–68.

9 Many, although not all, of these returns still exist and can be found in the Archivo General de Indias, Seville, Audiencia de Santo Domingo, legajo 2207.

10 von Humboldt, Alexander, Essai politique sur l'île de Cuba (Paris, 1826).Google Scholar

11 Aimes, H. H. H., A History of Slavery in Cuba, 1511 to 1868 (New York, 1907, reprinted 1967), p. 269.Google Scholar

12 Curtin, , op. cit., p. 36.Google Scholar For Bandinel's views, see Bandinel, James, Some Account of the Trade in Slaves from Africa as connected with Europe and America from the Introduction of the Trade into modern Europe down to the present time, especially with reference to the efforts made by the British Government for its Extinction (London, 1842, reprinted 1968), pp. 284–6.Google Scholar

13 Curtin, , op. cit., p. 36, footnote 29.Google Scholar

14 AHN, legajo 8.038, summaries of letters to the Intendant of Havana, 24 November 1791 and to the Governor of Santiago de Cuba, 4 October 1792.

15 Saco, José Antonio, ‘Análisis de una obra sobre el Brasil’, Revista bimestre Cubana (1832)Google Scholar; reprinted in Colección de papeles cientifícos, históricos, políticos y de otros ramos sobre la isla de Cuba thereafter cited as Papeles sobre Cuba (3 vols., Havana, 1962), 2, 74.

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17 Ibid., p. 75.

18 Archivo General de Simancas, Simancas, estado, legajo 8277, ‘Representación del Consulado de la Havana sobre las últimas ocurrencias habidas en el Comercio de Negros’, no. 212, 24 February 1811.

19 Ortiz, Fernando, Hampa afro-cubana: los negros esclavos, estudio sociológico y de derecho publico (Havana, 1916), p. 87.Google Scholar

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23 Ibid., p. 32.

24 Ibid., p. 34.

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26 Curtin, , op. cit., p. 32 footnote 25.Google Scholar

27 Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, MSS 1461323, ‘Nota sobre la población de la Ysla de Cuba’, 20 July 1811.

28 Saco, , Papeles sobre Cuba, 2 76.Google Scholar

29 Ibid., II, 136–7. The pamphlet entitled ‘La supresión del tránco de esclavos africanos en la isla de Cuba, examinada con relación a su agricultura y a su seguridad’, was first published in Paris, 1844.

30 See Table 3.

31 Humboldt, , op. cit., p. 117.Google Scholar

32 Saco, , Papeles sobre Cuba, 2, 136.Google Scholar

33 Public Record Office, London (hereafter cited as P.R.O.), F.O. 84/463, Crawford to Palmerston, no. 35, 23 October 1843.

34 AHN, ultramar, legajo 4655, O'Donnell to Secretario de Estado y del Despacho de la Gobernación del Reino, 28 November 1847.

35 AHN, ultramar, legajo 4648, José de la Concha to Ministro de la Guerra y Ultramar, no. 1294, reservado, 9 June 1859.

36 Curtin, , op. cit., pp. 40–3.Google Scholar

37 Ibid., pp. 36–7.

38 Ibid., pp. 37–40.

39 David Tolmé was appointed the first British Consul in Havana in 1833. P.R.O., F.O. 72/415, Shee to Tolmé, draft, 16 September 1833. Britain had appointed a consul to Santiago de Cuba in 1830.

40 Biographical information on these men can be found in the following places: Kilbee, P.R.O., F.O. 72/215, Vaughan to Wm Hamilton, 16 March 1818; Macleay, , Dictionary of National Biography; Kennedy, Frederic Boase, Modern English Biography (6 vols., Truro, Netherton and Worth, 1892–1921).Google Scholar For the others see the Foreign Office Lists from 1854.

41 A supplementary treaty between Britain and Spain was signed in 1835. The text of the treaty can be found in British and Foreign State Papers, 23 (1834–1835), 343–74.

42 Curtin, , op. cit., p. 39, Table 9A.Google Scholar

43 Ibid., p. 38.

44 The correspondence in 1848 between Foreign Office officials and members of the Parlia mentary Select Committee can be found in P.R.O., P.O. 84/739.

45 P.R.O., F.O. 84/13, Jameson, to Clanwilliam, , 1 09 1821.Google ScholarJameson, Robert was Commissioner of Arbitration from 1819 to 1823 and author of Letters from the Havana, during 1820 (London, 1821).Google Scholar

46 Aimes, , op. cit., p. 269.Google Scholar

47 P.R.O., F.O. 84/39, Kilbee, to Canning, , no. 2, 1 01 1825.Google Scholar

48 P.R.O., F.O. 84/51, Havana Commissioners to Canning, , no. 3, 1 01 1826.Google Scholar

49 P.R.O., F.O. 84/68, Havana Commissioners to Canning, , no. 3, 1 01 1827.Google Scholar

50 P.R.O., F.O. 84/80, Havana Commissioners to the Earl of Dudley, no. 3, 1 January 1828.

51 P.R.O., F.O. 84/91, Macleay, to the Earl of Aberdeen, no. 3, 1 01 1829.Google Scholar

52 P.R.O., F.O. 84/106, Macleay, to the Earl of Aberdeen, no. 3, 1 01 1830.Google Scholar

53 Buxton, Thomas Fowell, The African Slave Trade and its Remedy (London, 1840, reprinted with an introduction by G. E. Metcalfe, Dawsons, London, 1968), pp. 29–34.Google Scholar

54 See Turnbull, David, Travels in the West, Cuba; with Notices of Porto Rico and the Slave Trade (London, 1840), pp. 361–7Google Scholar; and Laird's, MacGregor review of Buxton's book in the Westminster Review, 34 (1840), 52–72.Google Scholar

55 Proceedings of the General Anti-Slavery Convention, called by the Committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, and held in London from Friday, 12 June 1840 to Tuesday, 23 June 1840 (London, 1841), p. 242.

56 P.R.O., F.O. 84/280, Tolmé, to Palmerston, , no. 18, 17 09 1839.Google Scholar See also P.R.O., F.O. 84/312, Havana Commissioners to Palmerston, , no. 3, 1 01 1840.Google Scholar

57 P.R.O., F.O. 84/280, Tolmé, to Palmerston, , no. 18, 17 09 1839.Google Scholar

58 Aimes, , op. cit., p. 245.Google Scholar

59 P.R.O., F.O. 84/280, Tolmé, to Palmerston, , no. 18, 17 09 1839.Google Scholar

60 P.R.O., F.O. 84/716, Kennedy, to Palmerston, , no. 63, 20 12 1848.Google Scholar

61 Curtin, , op. cit., p. 233.Google Scholar

62 P.R.O., F.O. 84/716, Kennedy, to Palmerston, . no. 63, 20 12 1848.Google Scholar See also F.O. 84/753, Kennedy, to Palmerston, , no. 3, 1 01 1849.Google Scholar

63 P.R.O., F.O. 84/395, Havana Commissioners to Palmerston, , no. 4, 1 01 1842.Google Scholar

64 Curtin, , op. cit., p. 39, Table 9A.Google Scholar

65 P.R.O., F.O. 84/753, Kennedy, to Palmerston, , no. 3, 1 01 1849.Google Scholar

66 P.R.O., F.O. 84/348, Havana Commissioners to Palmerston, , 1 01 1841.Google Scholar

67 The numbers are taken from the monthly reports of the Havana Commissioners, P.R.O., F.O. 84/348 and F.O. 84/395.

68 AHN, estado, legajo 8.039, Valdés, to Ministro de la Marina y Ultramar, no. 31, reservado, 1 06 1843.Google Scholar

69 P.R.O., F.O. 84/451, Havana Commissioners to Aberdeen, , no. 5, 2 01 1843.Google Scholar

70 P.R.O., F.O. 84/620, Havana Commissioners to Palmerston, , no. 4, 1 01 1846.Google Scholar

71 AHN, estado, legajo 8.039, Valdés, to Ministro de la Marina y Ultramar, no. 31, reservado,1 06 1843.Google Scholar

72 P.R.O., F.O. 84/508, Havana Commissioners to Aberdeen, , no. 5, 1 01 1844.Google Scholar

73 P.R.O., F.O. 84/561, Kennedy, to Aberdeen, , no. 4, 1 01 1845.Google Scholar

74 P.R.O., F.O. 84/620, Havana Commissioners to Aberdeen, , no. 4, 1 01 1846.Google Scholar

75 P.R.O., F.O. 84/667, Havana Commissioners to Aberdeen, , no. 3, 1 01 1847.Google Scholar

76 P.R.O., F.O. 84/714, Kennedy, to Palmerston, , no. 5, 1 01 1848.Google Scholar

77 P.R.O., F.O. 84/753, Kennedy, to Palmerston, , no. 3, 1 01 1849.Google Scholar

78 Curtin, , op. cit., p. 39.Google Scholar The table presented to the Parliamentary Committee on West Africa in 1865 is printed in full as an appendix to Hamilton, Archibald, ‘On the Trade with the Coloured Races of Africa’, Journal of the Statistical Society of London, 31 (1868), 25–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

79 P.R.O., F.O. 84/1106, Crawford, J. V. to Russell, , no. 15, 30 09 1860.Google Scholar

80 P.R.O., F.O. 84/959, Memorandum dated 20 February 1855 on Backhouse, to Clarendon, , no. 5, 1 01 1855.Google Scholar

81 P.R.O., F.O. 84/1130, Memorandum dated 6 February 1860.

82 P.R.O., F.O. 84/1215, Memorandum by Wylde, William, 29 11 1864Google Scholar on Crawford, J. V. to Russell, , no. 19, 30 09 1864.Google Scholar

83 Howard, Warren S., American Slavers and the Federal Law, 1837–1862 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1963), pp. 56–7.Google Scholar

84 Curtin, , op. cit., p. 39.Google Scholar Professor Corwin, Arthur F. in his work, Spain and the Abolition of Slavery in Cuba, 1817–1886 (Austin and London, University of Texas Press, 1967), p. 143Google Scholar, falls into the same error, citing a Spanish figure as the estimated slave imports for 1862 when it is really the British estimate for 1861. The Spanish government refused to accept it as accurate.

85 Spain and the African Slave Trade. An Address to Spaniards; from the committee of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (London, 1862), p. 1.

86 AHN, estado, legajo 8.045, de Alcoy, Conde to Howden, Lord, 17 03 1853.Google Scholar

87 AHN, ultramar, legajo 3547, Concha, to Ministro de Estado y Ultramar, no. 340, 12 06 1857Google Scholar; Concha, to Ministro de Ultramar y Guerra, reservado, 7 11 1859.Google Scholar

88 AHN, ultramar, legajo 4692, Dulce, to Ministro de Ultramar, no. 83, 12 06 1864.Google Scholar

89 Curtin, , op. cit., p. 44, note 40.Google Scholar

90 Ibid., p. 238.