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IT is just ten inches high and carries ancient enamelling that commemorates
Whitehaven's links to the slave trade. Yet this modest piece of glassware is
not only valued at almost £100,000, but has a vivid link to the founding
father of the United States Navy, John Paul Jones. It was also the centre of
an openly admitted pay-off to the underworld in 1995.
Looking westward to sea the small fishing village at Whitehaven had blossomed
from a cluster of 50 cottages to a port of 2,000 during the lifetime of it then
owner, Sir James Lowther (1642-1705) The impetus for this growth was easily
dug coal that could be profitably shipped across the Irish Sea to feed the domestic
grates of Dublin. Sea walls and ship-building naturally followed. Then the bold
ship-owners and their captains realised the money making possibilities of the
New World.
Virginia, named after the Virgin Queen Elizabeth 1 became
the frequent destination for Whitehaven ships. The money making trade started
with tobacco (narcotics being a huge moneyspinner then, just as today) The trade
grew however and the West Indies attracted Cumbrian investment in plantations.
Sugar was the driving force to this trade, as was the rum that was distilled
from it. It was the need for labour to service this sugar and rum business that
Whitehaven joined with London, Bristol and Liverpool merchants in the triangular
trade taking tools and fancy goods to bribe arab slave traders in West Africa.
These traders supplied negro slaves to be shipped to the Caribbean. The same
ships then loaded up with sugar and rum before returning to Britain.
Hugh Thomas in his history, The Slave Trade describes how the English Slave
trade was handled by the Royal Africa Company, but interlopers were always running
slave ships following the creation of the trade by the Portugese. In 1698 independent
traders were allowd to compete as long as they paid 10% to the RAC for the provision
of forts on the West African coast. One such 'Ten percenter' was Isaac Milner
from Whitehaven. He moved his base to London but between 1698 and 1712 sent
24 expeditions to ship slaves from Africa to the West Indes and Virginia. Milner
was also involved in the wine trade from Madeira.
For at least ten years Whitehaven was involved in this human trade until 1769
when the town appeared to swing behind the growing movement for abolition of
slavery. In the Virginia archives Copeland museum collections officer Gillian
Findley found typical references as follows: 'Early Virginia Immigrants' and
'Maryland and Virginia Colonials' with plenty of evidence of the importance
of 18th century Whitehaven as a gateway for both southern Scots and northern
English bound for the Americas. There are mention too of familiar-sounding Whitehaven
vessels and folk including the following entries: January 17-24, 1775
Passengers from Whitehaven to Virginia by the Mary and Ann, Mr Joseph Bell:
George Stevens of Virginia, planter, aged 40, returning home; George Craik of
Whitehaven, (Cumberland),schoolmaster, aged 28, to follow his occupation; Sarah
Cherry of Whitehaven, aged 22, indentured servant.
Similar mention is made of other 'Cumberland' working people, many in their
20s, off to make a new life in Virginia, 'following their trade' ? saddlers,
a courier, a shoemaker and block maker. But not all left home of their own accord:
1775
Convicts to be transported from Whitehaven to Virginia by the Hero (including)
three of Carlisle*
Feb 28-March 7, 1774
To go from Whitehaven to Virginia by the Caesar*a mulatto woman of Cumberland,
convict, aged 23. And:
May 17-24, 1774
Passengers from Whitehaven to Virginia by the Norfolk, Mr Jonathan Grindall:
Peter Simpson of Hensingham, (Cumberland), waggoner, aged 50, transported: Mary
Bragg of Hensingham, aged 50, transported; Ann Bragg of Hensingham, aged 20,
to settle: Betty Tennant of Whitehaven, (Cumberland), aged 16, to settle.
See more on Whitehaven's USA connections.
The Beilby Goblet was made in Newcastle on Tyne by William Beilby in 1763. It carries the Royal coat of arms of King George 3rd and on the other side a hand painting of a sailing ship and the words "Success to the African Trade of Whitehaven". The goblet had been made to commemorate the 1763 launch of the slave ship 'King George'. On that ship's maiden voyage the Third Mate was none other than one John Paul Jones. Jones was to later speak of his dislike of "this abominable trade.''
Events now move to 1985 when Whitehaven's museum curator
Harry Fancy realised the Bielby goblet was for sale and likely
to follow in Paul Jone's footsteps across the Atlantic. The Corning
Glass Museum was bidding for the Bielby Goblet. The Victoria and
Albert Museum moved swiftly and tried to halt the export. Harry
said of the bid to keep the goblet in England "It was a David
and Goliath situation.'' But the decision of the Export Licence
Review Committee was helpful. They gave Whitehaven four months
to match the US bid of £62,000. Copeland Council and other
grant donations won the day and the goblet was saved for Whitehaven.
But life for the 233 year old piece of glassware took a further
bizarre twist. In 1994 the woefully poor security at Whitehaven
museum was breached when theives smashed a glass case and fled
down a rear fire escape with the goblet. Customs kept watch, but
the valuable and so easily damaged goblet had vanished. That is
until covert calls were made to police from the underworld. Possible
as result of a high reward being offered the thieves had made
contact. The goblet could be returned, unharmed, but in return
for hard cash. The insurers were brought into secret talks. The
culmination of this was a meeting in a Cumbrian car park as Detective
Inspector Terry O'Connell had the unenviable task of handing over
a briefcase containing £10,000 in untracable bank notes.
He and curator, Harry Fancy were then handed in return a plain
cardboard box. Inside layers of tissue paper were lifted to reveal
the deep greeny glass and its gleaming enamelling.
Informed sources said Zurich insurance paid £6,500, Copeland
Council £2,500 and the Friends of the Museum made up the
extra. Detective O'Connell said he suspected the goblet had passed
through several hands, as it was so 'hot' and easily tracable.
In 2006 Copeland Council decided to issue a formal apology
for slavery, made on behalf of the people of Copeland, to mark
the Wilberforce bi-centenary next year in 2007.
The 2007 event will mark 200 years since the historic Abolition
of the Slave Trade Act, introduced into parliament by Hull MP
William Wilberforce.
For at least ten years Whitehaven was involved in this human trade
until 1769 when the town swung behind the growing movement for
abolition of slavery.
ONE of the first times a black slave was permitted to share
a white person’s burial plot in England happened in Whitehaven
in 1700. And the Whitehaven burial in St Nicholas’ churchyard,
of the slave called Jane, was in defiance of the then law stating
that no African could be buried in a churchyard. The burial was
that of the slave servant of Mildred Gale, grandmother of the
first US president, George Washington.
Amateur researcher Jean McInally, who hails from Kells but now lives in Scotland, has spotted the unique nature of the slave burial in English history. She said: “I have been asked why I think the burial of Mildred Gale, her baby daughter and her African slave in St Nicholas’s Churchyard, Whitehaven, is so important. “It was very important as in 1665 New Amsterdam was taken by the British from the Dutch and renamed New York. The British then brought in very harsh laws against the African slave population. “America was, at this time and at the time of Mildred Gale’s burial, a colony of Britain.
“Even before the laws in New York, all Africans were buried in mass or communal graves. They weren’t allowed to marry without permission, travel or meet in groups and in 1695 the British brought in a law stating that no African could be buried in a churchyard! “Whitehaven would know all about this at the time as ships were going back and forward from the old port on a regular basis. “No way would a white woman have shared a burial plot with an African slave in America or Britain at this time.”
But Muriel Cinnamon, who wrote a book on the Gale family, told The News this week: “I think the family had Jane baptised either in London or on the way to Whitehaven. They probably knew she was ailing and the baptism would have enabled her to be buried alongside her mistress. Jane is referred to in the parish register as a ‘negro servant’ rather than slave.”
Mrs McInally said: “From all accounts passed down to me, Mildred Gale had this slave girl educated and had her dressed as well as herself. They were great friends. “Mildred Gale was 300 years ahead of her time – as was Whitehaven regarding this burial. Cumbria was more advanced than the rest of the country by about 100 years! “William Wilberforce, the son of a wealthy Hull merchant born 1759, became an MP at age 20, and fought for over 50 years to stop the slave trade. Before he died in 1833 he knew his bill was going through Parliament and it was passed just after he died, The Abolition of the Slave Trade. He had friends in Cumbria. “American gave them their freedom in 1863. A civil war was fought over it and it was the 1960s, 1970s, before the colour bar started to fall. “Mildred Gale’s short life was certainly amazing. America would be a wild place as she was growing up in the 1670s. Pirates raiding the coastal settlements. Britain, France and Spain all fighting over the sugar, tobacco and rum trade. American Indians fighting to keep their land and way of life and the terrible slave ships and auctions. “Her burial is exactly opposite the fish restaurant on Duke Street, the tall dark headstone about 5ft high, about 10ft from the back wall, looked on to Duke Street, with just enough room for the burial in front.”
“Whitehaven proclaimed it to all the world on the headstone. It read: d 1700, Mildred Gale nee Warner of Warner Hall Virginia, wife of George Gale merchant of Whitehaven, Here also lie with her, her baby daughter and her African slave Jane.
“Mildred Gale was the widow of Major Laurence Washington
and mother of their three children: John, Augustine and Mildred.”
“Her grandson, Major George Washington, showed great courage
in 1781 when he promised slaves their freedom if they would fight
for him against the British. “A lot of them did and he won
the battle of Yorktown 1781. “He was the first president
of America, eight years later in 1789.” The exact location
of the gravestone is now unclear after hundreds were laid face
down during a "tidying up" exercise in the churchyard
in the 1970s.
Modern Slavery continues...There has been publicity this year (2001) Over the use of child slave labour in the cocoa plantations of West Africa. An outcry turned into a mystery about the fate of dozens of children reported to be in a suspected slave ship in west African waters when the vessel docked in Cotonou, Benin, in April 2001 with none of the suspected victims on board. The government of Benin and UN officials had claimed that about 180 children destined to work as slaves on plantations in Gabon were in the Nigerian-registered MV Etireno. UN officials in Cotonou speculated that the other children might have been put ashore elsewhere after the publicity about the ship and its cargo or, at worst, dumped at sea. To add to the confusion, there were reports of a ship carrying a large number of children trying to dock in Equatorial Guinea.
More
information on the Virginia Slave Trade connection at this research
web site.
