ELLIOTT (Sir George).
LS to Vice Admiral Sir Edward Griffith Colpoys regarding slavery and the West Indies.
SECRET & CONFIDENTIAL
A fascinating memo from the Secretary to the Admiralty to the commander of the North American station, written on the eve of the publication of evidence taken before the “Committees of both Houses of Parliament on the subject of slavery in the West Indies.” In the early nineteenth century the slave population on islands such as Jamaica outnumbered white colonials by a ratio of twenty to one. A number of rebellions had already occurred, specifically the Christmas Rebellion (or Baptist War) in December 1831, and the publication of evidence was considered likely to further inflame the situation. This memo directs Colpoys to deploy his fleet in a show of force so as to pre-empt any further slave mutinies.
“You will therefore prepare to concentrate your Squadron before the first Week of November in the West Indian Seas, proceeding thither with your Flag with Winchester and calling in your Ships from Halifax, Bermuda and the Northern part of your Station. You must so divide your Force as to protect Jamaica and at the same time to cover the Leeward Islands… [T]he fact should be well known that a Naval Force is at hand to overpower any insurrectionary movement and to afford protection to the Lives and Property of British Colonists.”
This copy produced for Sir George Cockburn, who succeeded Colpoys as commander of the North American station in 1833.