Helmut Walser Smith, Ph.D. Celia S. Applegate, Ph.D. David G
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Germany and the Question of Slavery, 1750-1850 By Christopher David Mapes Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in History August 31, 2018 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Helmut Walser Smith, Ph.D. Celia S. Applegate, Ph.D. David G. Blackbourn, Ph.D. Alexander Joskowicz, Ph.D. Copyright © 2018 by Christopher Mapes All Rights Reserved ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe a great deal to many generous people. First and foremost, I owe a substantial debt to my advisor Dr. Helmut Walser-Smith, the Chairman of my committee, for his mentorship, close reading of my work, and tireless effort. My committee members, Celia Applegate, David Blackbourn, and Ari Joskowicz, have all given me the support and guidance necessary to complete the project. Their intellectual rigor, commitment to scholarship, and devotion to the craft of history provide an endless source of inspiration. Their willingness to serve on my committee and to donate their time has been invaluable to the development of this project. This work would never have been completed without the financial support of the Vanderbilt University’s History Department, the German-American Fulbright Kommission, and the Herzog Ernst Scholarship program provided by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung. Their generous funding has allowed me the time to delve into the archives and produce this work. I also am indebted to the archival staff and fellow researchers at archives in Berlin, including the Geheimes Staatsarchiv, the Bundesarchiv, the Evangelisches Zentralarchiv, the Politisches Archiv des Auswärtigen Amts in Berlin, as well as the Archiv der Landeshauptstadt Potsdam, the Perhes Sammlung Gotha, and the city archives of Hanover, Hamburg, and Bremen. They provided me with invaluable information, suggested new directions, and helped me navigate through the sometimes illegible finding aids. George Williamson made my first weeks in Berlin more efficient and pleasant, and the company of Daniel Riches and Darius Ivoska served as exemplars of dedication and discipline. Lastly, my family deserves the most credit for helping me finish this project. They have donated much of their time and provided me with the necessary drive to finish. My dear wife Brandy, who has been incredibly supportive and understanding, has not only permitted me to iii work through nights and weekends alone, but also abandoned her job, stability, and life in the United States to join me for a trip to an unfamiliar place. She has provided me with the love and support necessary for such an undertaking. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION: Where do Germans fit in the History of Atlantic Slavery? ............................. 1 I: Discovering New World Slavery ............................................................................................... 22 Northern Europe and the “Golden Age of Islamic Piracy” (1600-1760) ...................................... 26 Germans Witness New World Slavery in the Americas, 1770-1800 ............................................ 39 Cameralism and the Culture of Central European Antislavery (1750-1780) ................................ 56 Ethnology, Naturalists, Race and the University Culture of Antislavery 1770-1800 ................... 63 Christian Slavery Returns ca. 1800 ............................................................................................... 77 II: Germany’s North African Slavery Problem: The Barbareskenfrage at the Congress of Vienna ....................................................................................................................................................... 81 Overseas Ambitions and Economic Recuperation ........................................................................ 85 Delegates Confront the Sklavenfrage and Barbareskenfrage in Vienna ....................................... 99 Germans Remain Captivated by Christian Slavery after Vienna ................................................ 119 III: Wilhelm von Humboldt’s Action against Slavery and Post-Vienna Christian Enslavement 1816-1830 .................................................................................................................................... 124 Post-Vienna Economic Recovery and Agricultural Disaster ...................................................... 127 The Barbary Problem at the Bundesversammlung ...................................................................... 142 Humboldt’s International Naval Force Against Slavery ............................................................. 146 Heinrich Pütter’s Mission to the Mediterranean ......................................................................... 155 Prussia’s Debt Crisis and the Failures from Karlsbad to Verona ................................................ 163 Prussia’s Christian Slavery Problem Ends .................................................................................. 176 IV:Germans Describe New Ideas of Slavery in Brazil, 1815-1850 ............................................ 187 Why Germans in Brazil? ............................................................................................................. 194 Rio de Janeiro as the “Epicenter of World Trade” ...................................................................... 201 Germans Encounter Brazilian Slavery ........................................................................................ 208 Travel Narratives’ Impact on German Ideas about Slavery. ....................................................... 248 Epilogue: “What does Prussia have to do with Slavery?”: ......................................................... 254 The ‘Final’ Abolition of Slavery in Prussia and a New Slavery Problem .................................. 254 The Problem of International Pressures ...................................................................................... 255 Christian Charity and Oheim Tom’s Success .............................................................................. 258 Slavery, American Relations, and a New Slavery Problem ........................................................ 263 v References ................................................................................................................................... 268 vi INTRODUCTION Where do Germans fit in the History of Atlantic Slavery? On May 17, 1681, Frederick I of Prussia sent a letter of patent to the Dutch naval commander Benjamin Raule granting him privileges to establish and operate an African company off the coast of modern day Ghana.1 The Brandenburg African Company (BAC), later renamed the Brandenburg African-American Company (BAAC), intended to engage in the slave trade following the Dutch example.2 While Raule outfit the Prussian navy for the slave trade, another cosmopolitan noble, Otto Friedrich von der Gröben, established a series of slave forts along the Gold Coast starting with Groß Friedrichsburg in 1683.3 For nearly four decades Prussians exchanged manufactured goods and agricultural products from Northern Europe for precious metals, ivory, and slaves at these contact points. Even though slaves sold in the West Indies offered the highest potential for profit, Raule knew that Brandenburg lacked the colonial presence in the New World necessary to compete with other powers. He therefore suggested the operation of slave markets rather than attempt to break into the already well-established, plantation-based, system of New World slavery. Under his guidance, Prussia created markets at St. Thomas and other nearby islands, which rapidly developed into some of the busiest in the West Indies. Piracy, 1 Peter Feddersen Stuhr, Die Geschichte der See- und Kolonialmacht des Großen Kurfürsten Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg in der Ostsee, auf der Küste von Guinea und auf den Inseln Arguim und St. Thomas, aus archivalischen Quellen dargestellt (Berlin: A.W. Hayn, 1839), 30-31. 2 While the sources for this history were collected during the 1980s, modern historians did not devote attention to the subject until the last two decades. Adam Jones, trans. and ed., Brandenburg Sources for West African History: 1680- 1700 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1986); Andrea Weindl, “Die Kurbrandenburger im ‘atlantischen System’ 1650-1720,” Arbeitspapiere zur Lateinamerikaforschung 2, no. 3 (2001); Ulrich van der Heyden, Rote Adler an Afrikas Küste: Die brandenburgisch-preussische Kolonie Grossfriedrichsburg in Westafrika (Berlin: Selignow, 2001); Andrea Weindl, “The Slave Trade of Northern Germany from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Centuries,” in Extending the Frontiers Essays on the New Transatlantic Slave Trade Database, eds. David Eltis and David Richardson (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008), 250-271; Sven Klosa, Die Brandenburgische-Africanische Compagnie in Emden: Eine Handelscompagnie des ausgehenden 17. Jahrhunderts zwischen Protektionismus und unternehmerischer Freiheit (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2011). 3 Gröben documents his efforts in a travelogue that became popular with advocates for a German overseas empire during the Kaiserreich. See Otto Friedrich von der Gröben, Orientalische Reise-Beschreibung des brandenburgischen adelichen Pilgers Otto Friedrich von der Gröben: Nebst der brandenburgischen Schifffahrt nach Guinea und der Verrichtung zu Morea, unter ihrem