Available at: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/3254
Date of Award
3-2026
Degree Name
MA in History
Department/Program
History
College
College of Liberal Arts
Advisor
Thanayi Cross Jackson
Advisor Department
History
Advisor College
College of Liberal Arts
Abstract
This study examines the illicit Spanish transatlantic slave trade to Cuba during the post-abolition era through a microhistorical analysis of the 1819 voyage of the schooner Nuestra Señora de las Nieves. Despite international efforts to suppress the trade following abolition treaties, this voyage illustrates how Spanish traders adapted their practices to continue trafficking enslaved Africans, fueling Cuba’s booming sugar economy amid shifting geopolitical and economic pressures. Drawing on primary documents seized by the British navy and analyzed alongside relevant secondary scholarship, this research situates the Cuban trade within the broader Atlantic world’s complex cultural, legal, and economic transformations.
The case of Nuestra Señora de las Nieves reveals the operational dynamics, networks, and motivations underpinning the illegal trade, highlighting its resilience and the challenges faced by abolitionist enforcement mechanisms such as the Mixed Commissions. By focusing on this singular voyage, the study offers nuanced insight into the persistence of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the early nineteenth century, illuminating a lesser-studied aspect of Atlantic history and contributing to a deeper understanding of the tole inter-culural relationships played in the late stages of the trade.