Abstract

"Transnational Merchant Collaboration and the Political Economy of Blockade Running in Nassau, 1861-1865"

Beau Cleland, University of Calgary (bdclelan@ucalgary.ca)

During the American Civil War, Secretary of State William Seward wrote to the British legation in Washington, stating "among those British subjects who were the first to institute a contraband trade with the insurgents, in violation of our laws, and in contempt of the Queen's proclamation [of neutrality], is a house established in Nassau and Liverpool, under the name of Adderly & Co." Seward, with undisguised anger, referred to the head of that firm, Henry Adderley, as "a person who is so vicious as to dishonor his own country and send desolation abroad to mine upon the motive of commercial gain."
Adderley is illustrative of the crucial yet understudied importance of colonial merchant partners to the Confederate war effort, and of the deep reliance by the Confederate government on private parties to execute, and even create, their trade and diplomatic policy in the Bahamas. These colonial partners, of whom Adderley’s firm was but one, often skirted the edge of what British neutrality laws allowed, and they became a constant source of tension between the Union and Britain and also between colonial and imperial authority in Britain. Firms like Henry Adderley and Co. worked hand in hand with Confederate merchants and officials to create a friendly and profitable environment for blockade running, especially by using their positions of influence in local government to change laws, policy, and court decisions. This firm, and how it came to be the indispensable assistant to Confederate operations in the Bahamas, offer a window through which to examine the mechanics of collaboration between the Confederacy, colonial governments, and the British empire.