by Teanu Reid, Ph.D. Candidate, Yale University, Departments of African American Studies and History

Scholars of the Atlantic slave trade and slavery in the British Caribbean may be surprised to learn that the Lewis Walpole Library has several documents related to the Royal Africa Company, commercial records of enslavers, and plantation surveillance.

The Importance of Effectively Supporting the Royal African Company of England Impartially Considered… London, Printed by E. Say; Sold by J. Roberts, 1745 The Lewis Walpole Library 49 2146 v.1

A few documents of note include The Importance of Effectually Supporting the Royal African Company of England, 1745 and The African Trade, the Great Pillar and Support of the British Plantation Trade, 1745 (bound together in LWL 49 2146.1). These pamphlets provide details about the company forts and castles on the continent of Africa, along with details of the activities of other European powers. They argue for the essentialness of the Atlantic slave trade over other commercial routes, including trade to East India.

The African Trade, the Great Pillar and Support of the British Plantation Trade in America…
London, Printed for J. Robinson, 1745
The Lewis Walpole Library 49 2146 v.1

A Short View of the Dispute between the Merchants of London, Bristol, and Leverpool, and the Advocates of a New Joint-Stock Company Concerning the Regulation of the African Trade London, 1750 The Lewis Walpole Library 49 2146 v.1

Additionally, various documents at the Lewis Walpole Library chronicle the complaints of Caribbean planters or English merchants, who felt cheated by duties or other imperial policies. A Short View of the Dispute between the Merchants of London, Bristol, and Leverpool, and the Advocates of a New Joint-Stock Company explicitly focused on the disagreements between merchants, planters, and corporations as related to the shipment of enslaved people from Africa to the Caribbean.

Thomas Conder, 1746 or 1747-1831
Plan of a regular coffee plantation, Decr. 1st, 1791, engraving.
The Lewis Walpole Library
791.12.01.03

Finally, prints like the Plan of a Regular Coffee Plantation by Thomas Conder,1791, and A Negro Market in the West Indies, 1806, depict how slave owners and other white colonists believed they could control and monitor enslaved black people laboring on Caribbean islands.

Cardon, Anthony, 1772-1813
A Negro market in the West Indies.
London, Printed by Motte, 1806
lithograph
The Lewis Walpole Library
806.00.00.51+

While documents like An Account of Runaway Slaves: Killed, Taken, and Surrendered (on the island of Dominica), 1816, show the consequences whites inflicted onto enslaved Africans who attempted to escape inhumane servitude.

Great Britain. Colonial Office.
An account of runaway slaves : killed, taken, and surrendered, between the 10th day of May 1813, the date of Governor Ainslie’s proclamation, and the 22nd day of November 1814, the day of his departure from Dominica.
London: House of Commons, 1816
The Lewis Walpole Library
File 652 G786 816

Indeed, a one or two-month fellowship at the Lewis Walpole Library could prove crucial for scholars of the Atlantic slave trade and slavery in the British Caribbean.

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Teanu Reid held a Lewis Walpole Library Summer Fellowship for Yale Graduate Students in 2021.