The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, July 1956 - April, 1957 Page: 370
616 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Yacht during the Civil War, employed a direct device to acquire
valuable Northern free Negroes. At one time, "he hired a colored
crew at Boston, and then coolly [sold] them at Galveston."2 Later,
during the Civil War, he was captured by the Yankees and con-
demned to be hanged as a pirate for having engaged in the slave
trade; but, eventually, he was exchanged before the sentence was
carried out.2
The kidnaping of an occasional "coloured lad" from the West
Indies Islands, with the intent to sell the boy later as a slave in
Texas, was a recurring source of irritation to British officials. As
early as 1838, the British Foreign Office protested to Texas author-
ities against this abuse of her nationals and demanded the return
of "some persons of colour kidnaped from" the islands.4 More
than a decade later, the Foreign Office was still aroused over
similar kidnapings of British Negroes. Lord Palmerston wrote
Arthur Lynn, then British consul in Galveston, that an organized
system was being used in Jamaica to decoy "Young Negro lads
on board United States vessels in Jamaica" for the purpose of
"selling them as slaves in Galveston." Palmerston directed Lynn
to exert all the means available in the law to "apprehend those
engaged in this crime.""
Lynn endeavored to apprehend the perpetrators of this illegal
trade and to rescue the victims, but with little success. "It is very
hard to catch this kind of kidnaping," wrote Lynn to Palmerston
a year later, "as it is kept in the dark and these slaves are closely
watched." Although public laws and public opinion in Galveston
did not sanction the kidnaping of British free Negroes, observed
the consul, it was, nevertheless true that neither public opinion
"Walter Lord (ed.), The Fremantle Diary, Being the Journal of Lieutenant
Colonel James Arthur Lyon Fremantle, Coldstream Guards, on His Three Months
in the Southern States (Boston, 1954), 54-
sIbid. The above information was told to Colonel Fremantle when he visited
Galveston during the month of May, 1863. Captain Chubb, according to Fremantle,
was a well-known "character" in Galveston.
4William Kennedy to Earl of Aberdeen, May go, 1843, printed in "British Cor-
respondence Concerning Texas," Ephraim A. Adams (ed.), Southwestern Historical
Quarterly, XVII, 0oo.
BLord Palmerston to Arthur T. Lynn, British Foreign Office, December 5, 1851
(MS., British Foreign Office, London. Hereafter cited as F.O.).370
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Periodical.
Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 60, July 1956 - April, 1957, periodical, 1957; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101163/m1/399/?rotate=90: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.