True Colours
The Russian Consul in New York issued a stern rebuke to those trying to break Britain’s ban on slave-trading by sailing under his nation’s colours.
1836
King William IV 1830-1837
© Sara Raymer, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
As the crew tie up to the pier at the US Coast Guard base on Kodiak Island, Alaska, a seaman aboard the Russian Federal Border Guard Service vessel Neva, named after the river that runs through St Petersburg, prepares to hoist a Russian naval jack. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russians reinstated the naval flags of the Russian Empire: the jack (1700-1918), as shown above, flown from the bow; and the larger ensign (1710-1917), a blue saltire of St Andrew on white background, flown from the stern. In 1836, it was not just the flags that were in harmony as the British and Russian Empires worked together to strangle the USA’s trade in African slaves.
Introduction
Long after slavery was criminalised throughout the British Empire, the abuse went on unabated in the USA. Hoping to escape the wrath of the Royal Navy, traders with their wretched cargo would sail to America under false colours, but on April 2nd, 1836, the Russian Consul in New York, Alexis Eustaphieve (1755-1857), issued this stern Consular notice to any who thus dishonoured the Russian flag.
“CERTAIN individuals who, in defiance of the laws of their own country, still continue to engage in the African slave-trade, having given cause for suspicion that they intend to make use of the Russian flag as a protection against the right of search and seizure, mutually assumed and conceded by the powers participating in the treaty for the suppression of this nefarious traffic, the undersigned, the Russian Consul General, at New York, being specially instructed by his government, gives hereby public notice to all persons whom it may concern, that the Russian flag can in no case be resorted to without the previous permission of the Imperial Government, and without legal authorization in due form, and in strict accordance with the laws of the empire; that any proceeding to the contrary shall be considered as a fraud, exposing the persons guilty of it to all its consequences; and that no slave-trader, in any circumstances whatever, when seized under the Russian flag, or otherwise, can invoke the aid of the Imperial Government to screen him from just and well-merited punishment.”
From ‘Liberty’ (1837) by Julius Ames (1801-1850).
