True Colours

In 1836, slave-traders bringing their cargo to America (where slavery was still legal) adopted the flag of the Russian Empire, and claimed immunity from the British Royal Navy’s policing of the seas. On learning of it, the Russian Consul in New York declared that they deserved whatever the Royal Navy did to them, and that Russia would not intervene.

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Abolition of Slavery (26) Aleksei Grigor’evitch Eustaphieve (1) Russia (44) Russian History (47) Political Extracts (99) British History (377) Extracts from Literature (459) History (777)

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