Abstract
From the beginning of 1840 until 1854, the British government installed the vessel H.M.R.S. Crescent in the port of Rio de Janeiro to receive liberated Africans from slave ships and the crews of the same vessels until the judgment of the case by the Mixed Commission Court. The intention was that this vessel would serve, at the same time, as accommodation, hospital, and prison. With the British consular documentation on the slave trade, this article explores the importance of this ship in the “African immigration scheme” to the West Indian colonies, the benefits of this strategy for liberated Africans, and what it meant for British abolitionism. Likewise, it also assesses how the presence of the Crescent bothered the national authorities, who saw it as a violation of Brazilian sovereignty. Finally, it concludes that the British authorities, although motivated by an interest in transferring workers to the West Indies, were in fact concerned with the well-being of Africans.
Keywords
Slavery; abolitionism; liberated Africans; slave trade; diplomacy