Mark - Yeah, I thought someone would catch that thing I typed about the British "sinking" the slave ships. It was a bit misleading, actually...careless typing on my part. Their intention was to capture those ships, release the slaves and arrest the crews. This led to some lengthy chases and some bitter battles, as the slavers were usually well armed and frequently chose to fight. In the course of those battles some of the slave ships did burn or sink, but that was not the objective the British had in mind.

No one ever wanted to sink a ship in those days, if they could possibly capture it...because a captured ship yielded prize money to the captain and crew who took it...plus in this case they were also trying to rescue the slaves.

The slaves were in any case in considerable danger. It wasn't unusual to find a good many of them dead from unbelievable overcrowding on the filthy and stifling lower decks, and in some cases the slavers hastily dumped them overboard, in heavy chains, to destroy the incriminating evidence of their activities before they were boarded by the British.

In other cases, the slavers presented phony documents, purporting to prove that the slaves were hired labourers, paying passengers, or some other spurious notion of that sort...people's gall is truly amazing under such circumstances.

McGrath - Good points. I guess then that the main difference was that slavery was still legal within the borders of the southern USA after 1834, while in the British Empire it was not. So it was "business as usual" in Dixie, but not on the ocean waves.

- LH