HOW TO FIND A SWEDISH SLAVE SHIP IN THE ARCHIVES
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Part 1/?
First of all, because of many factors, you don't find it, it finds you.
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While working with tagging the digital Swedish colonial archives of Saint-Barthélemy as a part of the #SweCarCol project, an interesting swathe of documents turn up in an unexpected place.
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Looking through a volume containing deceased estate records, the remaining papers of one captain Petter Fahlgren turn up. He died on Saint-Barthélemy (StB) on the 15th of June 1795, in some kind of "spotted fever", probably some kind of typhoid fever.
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Turns out I have encountered Fahlgren and his ship Fäderneslandet (Fatherland/Homeland) before, in a letter from a Swedish West India Company agent to the directors in Stockholm, on the 26th of June 1795. The company ship's crew are also dying from the disease.
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The company agent Gustav Wernberg, did however for some curious reason not mention that the Swedish-flagged Fäderneslandet, home port Stockholm, is a SLAVE SHIP. Along w/ captain Fahlgren's papers are a number of HIGHLY INTERESTING DOCUMENTS, including...
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... inventories and personal effects of the deceased, a contract signed in Lissabon in February 1794, damaged fragments of a sea protest, receipts, and a contract signed in StB's capital Gustavia in May 1795, for the purchase of 209 slaves, to one François Delacroix
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After transcribing the lot, I try to reconstruct a timeline. First we go to the sound toll registers. Thanks to the Danes who exacted a toll through Oresund, we can look at ships going to and from the Baltic. Turns out Fahlgren was a regular sight in Portugal since the 1780s.
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The first doc in the estate recs is a list of effects, mainly money and bills of exch., left with an acquaintance in Stockholm, signed 29 Oct 1793; Fahlgren's last departure out of Oresund is dated 9 Nov 1793. Checks out. Then the contract in Lissabon
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It is damaged, so I only know that a meeting took place in Feb 1794 in Lisbon at the Swedish consul's home, between Fahlgren and a Manuel Pereira da Lima, with whom Fahlgren signs a contract. The contract is damaged and incomplete, but it is enough to see it'a about slaving
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Then, a large gap in the timeline. By reading inventories and lists of things in Fahlgren's possession, some small bits can be discerned. The ship has at least traded in Porto Novo (Benin), they have traded with Frenchmen, officers, the "French squadron" is mentioned.
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The names of the first supercargo (Reynaud) and the second (Tenente) are mentioned. Probably tagged along from Lisbon. No clue if they survived the journey. Receipts show that two Swedish officers onboard had their personal slaves sold in Gustavia. This was standard praxis.
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Then a contract signed btw/ Fahlgren and a local Gustavia merchant, Delacroix, on 5 May 1795. Fahlgren mentions 209 slaves, Delacroix 200 slaves. Price: 120 Spanish dollars per captive. Payment to be delivered in 3 parts over 2 months. So the journey has lasted over a year.
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Then receipts for payments, Delacroix pays off everything by 6 June, before Fahlgren dies. Total amount 21 975 Sp.D, which suggests 183 slaves if contract price holds. Plus officers' slaves. Some slaves could have died onboard, or sold.
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So the island admin wraps up Fahlgren's belongings after he dies. Also interesting is that former Swedish Company's agents Röhl & Hansen, as well as the current agent Wernberg are implied either as witnesses or signatories in the slave deal with Delacroix...
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... Röhl & Hansen were by far the largest slave-traders on StB, mind, even if the Swedish slave trade was relatively small. Wernberg also traded in slaves, but died in 1799. Johan Sommar, first mate on Fäderneslandet, and one of the officers who had sold slaves...
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received all of Fahlgren's most important documents, including a sea protest which WOULD BE HIGHLY INTERESTING TO READ, since it would contain a description of the voyage. Sommar can be sighted returning to the Baltic in late August 1795...
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18/ Sommar probably stopped by Lisbon to pay Pereira da Lima, and to offer up a copy of the sea protest. He doesn't carry anything except sundry goods past Oresund, no sugar, no colonial goods.
WHY IS THIS SO IMPORTANT? 1. Well, it's the first instance that I know of that a Swedish tramp ship dabbles in the slave trade. I know of other Swedish-flagged ships from St B, but they were often very international ventures w. non-Swedish captains.
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2. The Lisbon contract had one very interesting ToA. E.g. if the ship was captured as an act of war involving Sweden as a belligerent, the captain would not be paid the same amount. I don't know if this was a usual term during wartime, but maybe Swedish neutrality...
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... was used as a hook by the Swedish agent in Lisbon, furthering a new branch of Sw maritime trade? 3. It is the most well-contextualized case of Swedish slave trade I have ever seen, despite many gaps.
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4. I have scoured slavevoyages.org, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, for any ship that could resemble this voyage. I can't find it. It is a new find (!!!) So...
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... I would ask the few #twitterstorians who follow me to RT and, if possible, to direct me to experts in the Portuguese / French slave trade. I would love to know more about Pereira de Lima, Reynaud, and Tenente if at all possible. Docs in the Swedish national archives...
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... only go so far, and it is my experience that colonial affairs such as these have to be collected from sources that geographically wide and varied. Thank you.
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