Measures for the Suppression of the Trade in Enslaved Persons

Title:

Measures for the Suppression of the Trade in Enslaved Persons

Date:

1856/1856

Description:

Abstract: This item comprises copies of enclosures to a despatch from the Government of Bombay Secret Department to the Secret Committee, Number 42 of 1856, dated 10 June 1856. The enclosures are dated 19 December 1855-7 June 1856.The enclosures chiefly comprise despatches from Brigadier William Marcus Coghlan, Political Resident in Aden, to the Government of Bombay, and the latter’s responses, in connection with British attempts to suppress the trade in enslaved persons in the Red and Arabian seas and the Persian Gulf regions. They notably cover and include:Coghlan’s frustration over the lack of available vessels to enable him to visit independent ports on the Arabian and African coasts and Turkish [Ottoman] ports in the Red Sea, in particular Shuhr and Maculla [Ash Shihr and Mukalla] which Coghlan suggests should be monitored for boats crossing from Africa; the Government of Bombay’s resolution to press the need for naval resources upon the Secret Committee; and the Court of Directors’ recommendation that for now existing vessels at Aden and Persian Gulf stations should be usedCoghlan’s suggestion that a vessel of war be stationed at Perim Island in the Straits of Babel Mandel [Bab el Mandeb] commanding the entrance to the Red SeaThe agreement concluded by Coghlan with Sultan Manassir, the Oulaki [Sulṭān Manāṣir, al-‘Awlaqī tribe], and the latter’s complaints that his neighbours continue the trade and benefit further from his self-interdictThe issue of the need to obtain a treaty with ‘Arabian chiefs’ on the Gulf coast providing the right of British vessels to demand the liberation of enslaved persons landed ashore, and the assertion of the Acting Resident in the Persian Gulf that Zanzibar traders evade British surveillance by sailing to Oman and following land routes through Mesopotamia and Persia [Iran], and suggestion that a steam vessel be stationed at Mazeera Island [Masirah]The question of producing a ‘digest’ of all treaties existing on the subject of slavery and Coghlan’s concern that they are not enforced partly due to obscure termsAn intelligence report (supplied by a person connected with the firm of Menon Lambert and Co of Mauritius who have contracted with the British Government to carry the mails between Mauritius and Aden) describing the extent of the trade in enslaved persons carried on by Arab and Persian craft from the coast of Africa and Zanzibar to ports on the Red and Arabian seas and the Persian Gulf (ff 314-315).The principal correspondents are: Coghlan, the Government of Bombay, and the Acting Resident in the Persian Gulf, Bushire.Physical description: 1 item (19 folios)

Language:

English

Type:

Archival item

Type (Narrower):

Other Texts

Type (Broader):

Text

Subject:

Surveillance
Slave trade
Treaties
Naval operations

Geographic region:

Perim Island
Persian Gulf
Zanzibar

Rights:

المُلكية العامة

Identifier:

81055/vdc_100157091557.0x000010_ar
81055/vdc_100157091557.0x000010_en
IOR/L/PS/5/487, ff 305-323
IOR/L/PS/5/487, ff 305-323

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