Odious Commerce

The Atlantic slave trade brought to Cuba the African slaves who created the dramatic transformation of the island from a relative backwater of Spain’s colonial empire in the mid-eighteenth century to the world’s richest plantation colony one hundred years later. Britain played a vital role in this transformation. British slave traders were the chief suppliers of Cuba’s slaves in the eighteenth century; in the nineteenth century Britain became the greatest threat to Cuba’s prosperity when she attempted to make Spain follow her example and abolish the slave trade. Dr Murray’s study, based on a thorough examination of British and Spanish records, reveals how important British influence was on the course of Cuban history.