Hemispheric and Intercolonial Migrations in the Rt Ans-Atlantic Slave Trade, 1660-1807 Neal D

University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations 2016 A Culture Of Commodification: Hemispheric And Intercolonial Migrations In The rT ans-Atlantic Slave Trade, 1660-1807 Neal D. Polhemus University of South Carolina Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Polhemus, N. D.(2016). A Culture Of Commodification: Hemispheric And Intercolonial Migrations In The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, 1660-1807. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/3934 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A CULTURE OF COMMODIFICATION: HEMISPHERIC AND INTERCOLONIAL MIGRATIONS IN THE TRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE, 1660-1807 by Neal D. Polhemus Bachelor of Science College of Charleston, 2003 Master of Arts College of Charleston, 2010 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History College of Arts and Sciences University of South Carolina 2016 Accepted by: Matt D. Childs, Major Professor Daniel Littlefield, Committee Member Woody Holton, Committee Member Josh Grace, Committee Member Cheryl L. Addy, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School © Copyright by Neal D. Polhemus, 2016 All Rights Reserved. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It has been a long journey to this point, and along the way I have received the assistance of many people. First and foremost, I thank my parents Peter and Jill Polhemus for instilling in me the important values of hard-work, sacrifice and determination. At the College of Charleston, I was fortunate to take several courses with Robert Crout. As an undergraduate, Robert introduced me to the Atlantic World, taught me the rigors of documentation and the secrets to navigating overseas archives. While completing my MA, I was fortunate to learn from several talented historians. Tim Coates introduced me to early modern Portuguese and Brazilian history. Jason Coy’s seminar on European religion and culture was a model of excellence. David Preston agreed to shepherd my thesis and improved it tremendously. A semester working with Nic Butler and the Mayor’s Walled City Task Force allowed me to dig deeply through South Carolina’s colonial records. Any apprehension I had about moving to Columbia and pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of South Carolina was alleviated after my initial meeting with Matt Childs. Matt’s willingness to take on an Atlanticist was both revealing and reassuring. At the same time, Matt encouraged me to pursue my own research interests that, until the final stages of writing my dissertation, seldom overlapped with Cuban history. Matt’s weekly seminars taught me how to interrogate books and primary sources with a surgeon’s precision and the importance of clearly stating my ideas. Seminars with iii Dan Littlefield introduced me to the history of colonial American society and slavery. Coursework with Martine Jean and visiting scholar David Roediger taught me to think critically about race and racial construction. Although I never took a course with Woody Holton, upon arriving at USC, he took a keen interest in my project. I was also fortunate, through Woody’s intervention, to discuss a chapter of my dissertation with Peter Wood. The University of South Carolina’s Atlantic History Reading Group has been a source of inspiration throughout my doctoral studies. Through the years, many fellow graduate students have read and critiqued conference papers and chapter drafts. I am particularly grateful to Chaz Yingling, Tyler Parry, Andrew Kettler, Rachel Monroy, Erin Holmes, Robert Greene II, Antony Keane-Dawes, and Mitch Oxford. I would also like to thank scholars that I have met at conferences and during visits to campus for Matt’s Atlantic history seminar: Jane Landers, Ugo Nwokeji, Alexander Byrd, Leslie Harris, John Garrigus, John Thornton, Linda Heywood, James Sweet, Herman Bennett, Roseanne Adderley, Vernon Burton, Sylviane Diouf, Michelle Reid-Vasquez, and João José Reis. In the process of completing my dissertation, I was privileged to work at a number of archives with diligent librarians and archivists. I thank the archivists at the British Library, the Bank of England, the Bristol Record Office, the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, the Bodleian Library, the British National Archives, the Biblioteca Nacional De España, the South Carolina Historical Society, the South Caroliniana Library, the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Hispanic Society of America, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, iv the William C. Clements Library and the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society. I thank the Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a Jacob M. Price Visiting Research Fellowship from the William C. Clements Library, the Institute for African American Research, a SPARC Graduate Research Grant from the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of South Carolina, and a Russell J. and Dorothy S. Bilinski Dissertation Fellowship provided financial and institutional support for the research and writing of this dissertation. I would not have been able to complete this dissertation without the enduring support and steadfast encouragement of my wife Jill. Her love and commitment to our relationship provided a foundation to persevere through the muck and mire. v ABSTRACT Beginning in the sixteenth century, as large quantities of produce were unloaded at ports throughout Northern Europe, consumer consumption of West Indies commodities drove demand for captive African labor. As a result, from 1556 to 1867, Europeans transported some 12 million West Africans to the Americas. Based on primary sources from over three countries and more than thirty archives, this study explores the structure and organization of the transatlantic slave trade to analyze the transformation of relationships and the commercial operation of the trade in West Africa, the circum-Caribbean, and more broadly the Atlantic world. This study of the transatlantic slave trade from the seventeenth to the eighteenth centuries is framed through the analytical concept of "Labor Wars" between rival empires (Spain vs Britain); between merchants (European, African, and New World merchants) and between masters and slaves themselves on plantations, ships, and slave dungeons. The geographic terrain of this study connected West and Central Africa to the Greater Caribbean, but also moved beyond the familiar terrain of Atlantic history to include Madagascar in the Indian Ocean and North Africa in the Mediterranean. The operation of the transatlantic slave trade was guided by the politics of power, war, violence and greed that directly impacted the flow of captives to the coast and the Americas. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ iii ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. ix INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 1: BRITISH AND SPANISH LABOR WARS: THE CHALLENGES AND CONTINGENCIES OF ORGANIZING MIGRATION IN THE TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE .................................24 CHAPTER 2: MISMANAGING WHYDAH: COMMERCE, DIPLOMACY AND THE PRINCIPLES OF ELITE AUTHORITY ON THE SLAVE COAST, 1695-1724 ........................................................77 CHAPTER 3: “SUCKING THE ENGLISH ASSIENTO AND ASSIENTISTS BLOOD DAILY:” THE SOUTH SEA COMPANY AND THE SLAVE TRADE TO BUENOS AIRES, 1715-1740 ...............135 CHAPTER 4: “PAY HIM IN NEGRO FLESH”: AFRICAN MIGRATION AND THE OPERATION OF THE INTERCOLONIAL SLAVE TRADE .................................................................................204 CHAPTER 5: PERFORMING QUARANTINE: PREPARING AND PROCESSING WEST AFRICAN BODIES FOR MARKET IN THE ANGLO-ATLANTIC WORLD .................................................262 CHAPTER 6: IN THEIR FOOTSTEPS: WEST CENTRAL AFRICANS AND AFRICAN ETHNICITY IN THE SOUTH CAROLINA LOWCOUNTRY .............................................................................292 CHAPTER 7: ABEL CONDER AND MAHAMUT: CAPTIVE NARRATIVES AND COLONIAL ERASURES IN THE CARIBBEAN AND EARLY MODERN IBERIAN ATLANTIC ........................322 CONCLUSION .....................................................................................................................358 REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................372 APPENDIX A – SHIPBOARD UPRISING ON THE ST. MICHAEL, FEBRUARY 1727 .................437 APPENDIX B – SLAVE PRICES AT MORONDAVA, DECEMBER 1726 ....................................440 APPENDIX C – PURCHASE DEED OF CABENDA, 1721 ........................................................441 vii APPENDIX D – ST. PAUL PARISH PURCHASERS .................................................................442 APPENDIX E –

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