Pedrocut
Master Barmmie
In post 2 it highlights the Galton’s “alleged connections to slave trading.”
I don’t think there can be any doubt about the connections. This has been taken up recently on the Blog “up the Os Road” by Simon Briercliffe...
https://uptheossroad.wordpress.com/2017/09/03/slavery-and-the-black-country-collars-and-chains/
“The best example of the trade is the Galton family featured in Richards’ article. Samuel Galton senior and junior were gun manufacturers based at Steelhouse Lane, Snow Hill. Around 200 slaving ships left British ports a year, each demanding a load of guns – the “Castleton” required 1,400, the Swan”450 – and Galton agents were stationed at Liverpool, London, Bristol and Lancaster to meet the traders and take orders. Another ship, the “African,” owned by the Liverpool-based slaver Joseph Manesty made several journeys in 1752 and 1753 carrying Galton guns – these are notable for being captained by one John Newton, later to undergo a dramatic conversion and become the author of “Amazing Grace.” They even supplied a specialist trade in Angola muskets to the Portuguese slave trade based in Lisbon. To meet demand, the Galtons had to scour the Black Country for parts and outbid other manufacturers: a price war occurred in 1754 when another manufacturer, Willets, offered 2 1/2d more per musket lock than Galtons had. The Galtons ended up comfortably ensconced in the business networks of the trade as well, pointing the slaver John Dawson towards Boulton and Watt’s Soho Manufactory to explore the potential of a steam engine at his sugar works in Trinidad.....Making weapons for war and slavery eventually earned Galton junior the censure of the Quakers, of which he – as with many other Birmingham businessmen – was an active member. His defence (see here) was on strict capitalist lines – he argued that those who consumed sugar, tobacco etc. that came via the Caribbean were the ones encouraging the trade; it wasn’t his fault that this evil trade demanded his guns.
I don’t think there can be any doubt about the connections. This has been taken up recently on the Blog “up the Os Road” by Simon Briercliffe...
https://uptheossroad.wordpress.com/2017/09/03/slavery-and-the-black-country-collars-and-chains/
“The best example of the trade is the Galton family featured in Richards’ article. Samuel Galton senior and junior were gun manufacturers based at Steelhouse Lane, Snow Hill. Around 200 slaving ships left British ports a year, each demanding a load of guns – the “Castleton” required 1,400, the Swan”450 – and Galton agents were stationed at Liverpool, London, Bristol and Lancaster to meet the traders and take orders. Another ship, the “African,” owned by the Liverpool-based slaver Joseph Manesty made several journeys in 1752 and 1753 carrying Galton guns – these are notable for being captained by one John Newton, later to undergo a dramatic conversion and become the author of “Amazing Grace.” They even supplied a specialist trade in Angola muskets to the Portuguese slave trade based in Lisbon. To meet demand, the Galtons had to scour the Black Country for parts and outbid other manufacturers: a price war occurred in 1754 when another manufacturer, Willets, offered 2 1/2d more per musket lock than Galtons had. The Galtons ended up comfortably ensconced in the business networks of the trade as well, pointing the slaver John Dawson towards Boulton and Watt’s Soho Manufactory to explore the potential of a steam engine at his sugar works in Trinidad.....Making weapons for war and slavery eventually earned Galton junior the censure of the Quakers, of which he – as with many other Birmingham businessmen – was an active member. His defence (see here) was on strict capitalist lines – he argued that those who consumed sugar, tobacco etc. that came via the Caribbean were the ones encouraging the trade; it wasn’t his fault that this evil trade demanded his guns.
