The problem of the abolition of slavery and maritime rights on U.S. vessels with regards to British-American relations in the first half of the 19th century

• Authors: Nguyen Van Sang , Jolanta A. Daszyńska

Title variants

Problem zniesienia niewolnictwa i praw morskich na statkach Stanów Zjednoczonych w relacjach brytyjsko-amerykańskich w pierwszej połowie XIX wieku

• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The article analyses the struggle of Anglo-American relations connected to slaves and maritime rights on the sea from 1831 to 1842. The study is based on monographs, reports, treaties and correspondences between the two countries from the explosion of the Comet case in 1831 to the signing of the Webster–Ashburton treaty in 1842. This study focuses on three fundamental issues: the appearance of Comet, Encomium, Enterprise, Hermosa and Creole as international incidents with regards to British-American relations; the view of both countries on the abolition of slavery, maritime rights as well as the dispute over issues to resolve arising from these incidents; the results of British-American diplomacy to release slaves and maritime rights after the signing of the Webster–Ashburton treaty. The study found that the American slave ships were special cases in comparison with the previous controversies in bilateral relations. The American slave vessels sailed to the British colonies due to bad weather conditions and a slave rebellion on board. In fact, Great Britain and the United States had never dealt with a similar case, so both sides failed to find a unified view regarding the differences in the laws and policies of the two countries on slavery. The history of British-American relations demonstrated that under the pressures of the border dispute in Maine and New Brunswick, the affairs were not resolved. In addition, it could have had more of an impact on the relationship between the two countries, eventually p the two countries into a war. In that situation, the diplomatic and economic solutions given to the abolition of slavery and maritime rights were only temporary. However, the international affairs related to the American slave vessels paved the way for the settlement of maritime rights for British-American relations in the second half of 19th century.

PL

W artykule zostały przeanalizowane nabrzmiałe konflikty w anglo-amerykańskich relacjach dotyczących kwestii niewolnictwa i praw morskich w okresie od 1831 do 1842 r. Są one oparte na analizie monografii, raportów, postanowień traktatowych oraz korespondencji amerykańskich i brytyjskich dyplomatów od momentu tzw. incydentu Kormeta (Cormet) w 1831 r. do podpisania traktatu Webstera–Ashburtona w 1842 r. W artykule zostały poruszone trzy najważniejsze sprawy, mianowicie kwestie statków: Kormeta, Encomium, Enterprise, Hermosa i Kreola jako międzynarodowych problemów w relacjach brytyjsko-amerykańskich, poglądy obu państw na kwestię zniesienia niewolnictwa, prawa morskie, jak również dyskusja na temat tego, jak rozwiązać powstałe konflikty morskie, które związane były bezpośrednio z kwestią przewożenia niewolników. W artykule ukazano, że przewóz niewolników na amerykańskich statkach stał się powodem do podjęcia nadzwyczajnych przedsięwzięć, które nie miały miejsca w dotychczasowych bilateralnych stosunkach. Gdy po raz pierwszy amerykańskie statki z niewolnikami dopłynęły do brytyjskich kolonii z uwagi na złe warunki pogodowe i bunt niewolników na pokładzie, to z uwagi na to, że do tej pory ani USA, ani Wielka Brytania nie miały do czynienia z podobnymi przypadkami, w efekcie żadnej ze stron nie udało się znaleźć jednolitego poglądu. Dopiero pod presją sporu granicznego dotyczącego Maine i Nowego Brunszwiku podjęto rozwiązania, które uchroniły oba kraje przed rozpoczęciem konfliktu zbrojnego. Podjęto tymczasowe rozwiązania dotyczące niewolników i praw morskich, ale sprawy międzynarodowe związane z amerykańskimi statkami przewożącymi niewolników przyczyniły się do otworzenia drogi regulującej prawa morskie w stosunkach brytyjsko-amerykańskich. Była to nagląca potrzeba.

Keywords

EN

Great Britain; the United States of America; Comet; Encomium; Enterprise; Hermosa; Creole; Daniel Webster; Lord Ashburton; slavery; maritime rights

PL

Wielka Brytania; Stany Zjednoczone Ameryki; Kormet; Encomium (Chwalba); Enterprise (Przedsięwzięcie); Hermosa; Creole (Kreol); Daniel Webster; Lord Ashburton; niewolnictwo; prawa morskie; Wielka Brytania; Stany Zjednoczone Ameryki; Kormet; Encomium (Chwalba); Enterprise (Przedsięwzięcie); Hermosa; Creole (Kreol); Daniel Webster; Lord Ashburton; niewolnictwo; prawa morskie

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Łódzki. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
• Journal: Przegląd Nauk Historycznych
• Year: 2020
• Volume: 19
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 105-139

Dates

published

2020-12-30

Contributors

author

Nguyen Van Sang

• The University of Da Nang, University of Science and Education, Faculty of History, Department of World History

• https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3486-757X

author

Jolanta A. Daszyńska

• University of Lodz, Faculty of Philosophy and History, Institute of History, Department of Modern History

• https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9108-1296

References

• Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856: From 1789 to 1856, ed. by H.T. Benton, New York 1850.
• British and Foreign State Papers, 1842–1843, vol. XXXI, London 1858.
• Correspondence the Slave Trade with Foreign Powers, published by W. C lowes and Sons, London 1842.
• Message from the President of the United States, 24th Congress, 2nd Section, No. 174, Washington 1835.
• Message from the President of the United States, in compliance with a resolution of the Senate, in relation to the seizure and detention of the brigs Enterprise, Encomium and Comet, 25th Congress, 3rd Section, No. 216, Washington 1838.
• Parliamentary Papers, vol. XXVIII , published by H.M. S tationery Office, 1842.
• Register of Debates in Congress: Comprising the leading debates and incidents of the second session of the Eighteenth Congress, vol. X, Washington 1834.
• Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Louisiana, ed. by M.M. R obinson, New York 1845.
• Report of decisions of the commission of claims under the convention of February 8, 1853, between the United States and Great Britain, transmitted to the senate by the president of the United States, August 11, 1856, Washington 1856.
• Reports of International Arbitral Awards, vol. XXIX, New York 2012.
• The African Repository and Colonial Journal, vol. XI, published by the American Colonization Society, Washington 1835.
• The Creole Case and Mr. Webster’s Dispatch: With the Comments of the N.Y. American, ed. by W. Jay, New York 1842.
• The Diplomatic and Official Papers of Daniel Webster, while Secretary of State, New York 1848.
• Treaties and other International Acts of the United States of America, vol. II (Documents 1–40: 1776–1818), ed. by H.D. Miller, Washington 1931.
• Adams D., Lord Ashburton and the Treaty of Washington, “The American Historical Review” 1912, vol. XVII , No. 4, pp. 764–782.
• Adams T.J., Dictionary of American History, New York 1940.
• Bartnicki A., Michałek K., Rusinowa I., Encyklopedia historii Stanów Zjednoczonych Ameryki (od Deklaracji Niepodległości do współczesności), Warsaw 1992.
• Benton H.T., Benton Thomas Hart: Thirty Years’ View, New York 1856.
• Burrage H.S., Maine in the Northeastern Boundary Controversy, Portland 1919.
• Channing E.W., The Duty of the Free States; or Remarks Suggested by the Case of the Creole, London 1842.
• Downey T.A., The Creole Affair: The Slave Rebellion that Led the United States and Great Britain to the Brink of War, Maryland 2014.
• Giddings J.R., History of the Rebellion: Its Authors and Causes, New York 1864.
• Gordon H.T., The Treaty of Washington, Concluded August 9, 1842, by Daniel Webster and Lord Ashburton, Berkeley 1908.
• Hicks D., Dr. Channing and the Creole Case, “The American Historical Review” 1932, vol. XXXVII , pp. 516–525.
• Horne G., Negro Comrades of the Crown: African Americans and the British Empire Fight the US before Emancipation, New York 2012.
• Howell J., John Armfield, Slave-trader, “Tennessee Historical Quarterly” 1943, vol. II , No 1, pp. 3–29.
• Jack U., The story of Joshua Bates, “The Sacred Heart Review” 1918, vol. LIX, No. 31, pp. 7–8.
• Jervey E.D., Huber C.H., The Creole Affair, “The Journal of Negro History” 1980, vol. LXV, No. 3, pp. 196–211.
• Johnson W., White lies: Human property and domestic slavery aboard the slave ship Creole, “Atlantic Studies” 2008, vol. V, No. 2, pp. 237–263.
• Jones D.W., The Influence of Slavery on the Webster–Ashburton Negotiations, “The Journal of Southern History” 1956, vol. XXII , No. 1, pp. 48–58.
• Jones H., Crucible of Power: A History of American Foreign Relations to 1913, Maryland 2002.
• Jones H., To the Webster–Ashburton Treaty: A Study in Anglo-American Relations, 1783–1843, Carolina 1977.
• Jones H., Rakestraw A.D., Prologue to Manifest Destiny: Anglo-American Relations in the 1840s, Delaware 1997.
• Kaufman W., Macpherson S.H., Britain and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History, California 2005.
• Kerr-Ritchie J.R., Rebellious Passage: The Creole Revolt and America’s Coastal Slave Trade, Cambridge 2019.
• Levy J., Freaks of Fortune: The Emerging World of Capitalism and Risk in America, Massachusetts 2012.
• Libby D.J., Slavery and Frontier Mississippi, 1720–1835, Mississippi 2004.
• Ludlum P.R., Joshua R. Giddings, Radical, “The Mississippi Valley Historical Review” 1936, vol. XXIII , No. 1, pp. 49–60.
• Marley F.D., Historic Cities of the Americas: An Illustrated Encyclopaedia, vol. I (The Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America), California 2005.
• Moore J.B., A Digest of International Law, vol. II , Washington 1906.
• Moore J.B., History and Digest of the International Arbitrations to which the United States Has Been a Party: Together with Appendices Containing the Treaties Relating to Such Arbitrations, and Historical and Legal Notes on Other International Arbitrations Ancient and Modern, and on the Domestic Commissions of the United States for the Adjustment of International Claims, vol. IV, Washington 1898.
• Morris B.R., Encyclopedia of American History, New York 1982.
• Perkins B., Castlereagh and Adams: England and the United States, 1812–1823, California 1964.
• Perkins B., The Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations, vol. I (The Creation of a Republican Empire, 1776–1865), New York 1985.
• Pond S., The Spanish Dollar: The World’s Most Famous Silver Coin, “Bulletin of the Business Historical Society” 1941, vol. XV, No. 1, pp. 12–16.
• Remini R.W., Andrew Jackson: The Course of American Democracy, 1833–1845, Baltimore–London 1984.
• Riley S., Peters T.B., Homeward Bound: A History of the Bahamas Islands to 1850 with a Definitive Study of Abaco in the American Loyalist Plantation Period, Florida 2000.
• Rodriguez J.P., Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopaedia, vol. I , California 2007.
• Rodriguez P.R., The Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery, vol. I , California 1911.
• Rugemer E.B., Slave Rebels and Abolitionists: The Black Atlantic and the Coming of the Civil War, “The Journal of the Civil War Era” 2012, vol. II , pp. 179–202.
• Rupprecht A., “All We Have Done, We Have Done for Freedom’’: The Creole Slave-Ship Revolt (1841) and the Revolutionary Atlantic, “International Review of Social History” 2013, vol. LVIII , pp. 253–277.
• Sale M.M., The Slumbering Volcano: American Slave Ship Revolts and the Production of Rebellious Masculinity, Durham–London 1997.
• Sang N.V., The British-American Diplomacy in Searching for the Northeast Boundary in Maine and New Brunswick, 1820–1846, “Annals of the University of Cracovia. History” 2018, vol. II , No. 34, pp. 35–48.
• Sang N.V., The Caroline Affair and the Diplomatic Crisis between Great Britain and the United States, 1837–1841, “Prawo i Polityka” 2018, No. 8, pp. 73–83.
• Sang N.V., The question of Oregon in British-American relations, 1818–1846, “Koło Historii” 2017, No. 21, pp. 43–58.
• Sang N.V., The Reconstruction of the British-American Relations: from the American Revolutionary War to the War of 1812, “UED Journal of Social Sciences, Humanities and Education” 2019, vol. IX (V), pp. 50–58.
• Savage S.W., The Origin of the Giddings Resolutions, “Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly” 1936, vol. XLV, pp. 28–39.
• Schermerhorn J.L., The Business of Slavery and the Rise of American Capitalism, 1815–1860, New Haven–London 2015.
• Thomas E.M., William Cabell Rives and the British Abolitionists, “The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography” 1981, vol. L XXXIX, No. 1, pp. 64–66.
• Upchurch T.A., Abolition Movement, California 2011.
• Woodell W., Slavery and Anti-slavery: A History of the Great Struggle in both Hemispheres with a view of the Slavery Question in the United States, New York 1852.
• Woodson C.G., The Negro in Our History, Washington 1922.
• Aaron Vail (1796–1878), https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/vail-aaron (online: 12 I 2019).
• American Ambassadors to the United Kingdom, https://uk.usembassy.gov/our-relationship/rcambex/ (online: 12 I 2019).
• An Act to Prohibit the Importation of Slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States: From and after the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eight, http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/sl004.asp (online: 21 VI 2018).
• Andrew Stevenson, https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/S/STEVENSON,-Andrew-(S000891)/ (online: 12 I 2019).
• Artist to Depict Alexandria’s History with Slave Ship “Enterprise”, https://www.alxnow.com/2020/01/17/artist-to-depict-alexandrias-history-with-slave-ship-enterprise/ (online: 12 I 2019).
• Bermuda’s History from 1800 to 1899, http://www.bermuda-online.org/history1800-1899.htm (online: 11 II 2019).
• Censure, http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195142730.001.0001/acref-9780195142730 (online: 21 VI 2018).
• Charles Sumner, https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/charles-sumner (online: 21 VI 2018).
• First Annual Message, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/first-annual-message-3 (online: 18 IV 2019).
• Francis Cockburn, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/cockburn_francis_9E.html (online: 21 VI 2018).
• Our History, https://www.bahamas.com/our-history (online: 12 I 2019).
• Sir Francis Cockburn (1780-1868) – Canada, Belize, Bahamas and Dover, https://doverhistorian.com/2017/02/11/sir-francis-cockburn-canada-belize-bahamas-and-dover/ (online: 21 VI 2018).
• Slavery Abolition Act, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Slavery-Abolition-Act (online: 20 I 2019).
• Spanish dollar, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_dollar (online: 14 I 2019).
• The Bahamas Islands, West Indies, https://www.britannica.com/place/The-Bahamas (online: 12 I 2019).
• The Creole Case (1841), http://www.blackpast.org/gah/creole-case-1841 (online: 21 VI 2018).
• The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/the-slavery-abolition-act-of-1833/ (online: 20 I 2019).
• William Ellery Channing, https://theodora.com/encyclopedia/c/william_ellery_channing.html (online: 21 VI 2018).
• William Ellery Channing, https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Ellery-Channing (online: 21 VI 2018).
• William Preston, https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/media_player?mets_filename=evm00002634mets.xml (online: 21 VI 2018).
• William Rufus King, 13th Vice President (1853), https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_William_R_King.htm (online: 21 VI 2018).

Identifiers

DOI

10.18778/1644-857X.19.02.04