Heading: (1835 US diplomat in Cuba gives lukewarm aid to imprisoned Black sailors)
Author: J.[ohn] A.Smith
Title: US diplomat in Cuba gives lukewarm aid to imprisoned Black sailors
Place Published: Havana, Cuba
Publisher:
Date Published: Oct. 31, 1835
Description:

J.[ohn] A.Smith. Autograph Letter Signed as US Vice-Consul. Havana, Cuba, Oct. 31, 1835.

To the Spanish Captain General [Governor] of Cuba, about two Black men, “who say they are Americans”, both former sailors (one a cook) on American vessels who were arrested while their ships were in port. “I can send them out of the Island should your Excellency be pleased to order them to be released….” American consular officers were duty-bound to aid any American citizen who ran afoul of authorities in a foreign country; if Smith, in this situation, was less than zealous in aiding the imprisoned Black sailors, it may be because his superior, Consul General Nicholas Trist, was a pro-slavery Virginian with close personal ties to Madison, Jefferson, and  President Jackson, who appointed him. At the time of the Amistad affair, both Trist and Smith would later be accused by British officials of actively condoning the illegal slave trade to the African coast. Whether or not the hapless Black sailors ever secured their freedom from a Spanish jail is unknown.

very good condition