On the frontlines of slave trade abolition: British consuls combat state capture in Cuba and Mozambique

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay explores the careers of two British consuls on different sides of the globe, David Turnbull in Cuba and Lyons McLeod in Mozambique, both engaged in a long-running battle against the illegal slave trade. Consuls were often on the frontlines of efforts to police the trade, but they faced serious opposition from slave traders and government officials who often received bribes and kickbacks to turn a blind eye to the traffic. Far removed from their mother countries, these outposts of empire often operated in ways that contradicted imperial policies, practices that led to a level of corruption that amounted to state capture, a situation that helps explain why stopping the illegal slave trade was so problematic.