(SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) PALMERSTON, VISCOUNT LORD. Two retained secretarial copies of letters regarding the notorious case of the slave-ship "Maria de Gloria." Two small folio leaves, each folded to form four pages; one written on four sides, the other on two. Foreign Office 8 October, 1836
The retained manuscript copies of the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston's response to the tragic and shameful affair of the "Maria de Gloria," a Portuguese slave-ship captured by a British patrol in 1834. The prize crew at first brought the ship to Rio de Janeiro where the authorities refused to adjudicate, citing the fact that the ship was Portuguese not Brazilian. The ship then sailed back across the Atlantic to a prize court in West Africa where it sat for several months. All through this ordeal, the ship's cargo of 423 slaves continued to suffer in unspeakable conditions below decks. To add insult to injury, the prize court in Africa now ruled that the ship had been illegally seized and allowed the original owner, a Brazilian to take possession. The Maria de Gloria then crossed the Atlantic yet a third time. By now, 78 of the original 423 slaves had perished, and virtually all the remainder were sick. The British captain in charge of the vessel said he had seen "the most dreadful conditions a human can endure." A clearly frustrated Lord Palmerston strongly suggested several changes in the wording of the treaties with other countries regarding the capture of slave ships in order to avoid a repetition of this case. For more, see Jenny S. Martinez, "Slave Trade on Trial," (Boston Review, September-October, 2007.)
