"Blackbirding" - The Slave System's Just-as-Evil Twin?

New York Tribune article titled, "The Tahiti Carried No Slaves."

Description

Journalists from the United States and Australia get inside the post-Civil War practice of recruiting Pacific Islanders to work the world's non-U.S. plantations on extended contracts of indenture.

Subjects

Effects and Outcomes

In the case of George Morrison's reporting in 1882 for the Leader, the weekly magazine-style companion to the Age, his follow-up articles in the Age, and the newspaper's own campaign, triggered an investigation by Queensland's premier, Sir Samuel Griffith, that called Morrison's assertions into question. That prompted a further investigation by Queensland's governor, Sir Anthony Musgrave, who reviewed the case and threw his support to Morrison's account. By March 1884, Britain's Western Pacific Commission issued its report, condemning the system and calling for an increase in the naval force and the number of commissioners overseeing the activity.

Media History

The reporting was intended for these media types: Newspaper

"Is it a Cargo of Slaves?" - New York Tribune

"A Brig with 300 Gilbert Islanders in her hold near San Francisco"

1891-09-08

San Francisco, Sept. 7 (Special). - Much interest is taken here in the brig Tahiti, which is now lying in Drake's Bay, near here, with 300 Gilbert Islanders in the hold. The vessel is American, yet she is engaged in carrying these islanders to San Benito, Mexico, to work on coffee plantations. Captain Fergusen explains that his human cargo was secured by legitimate contract, and that when their period of service is completed the Mexican Government agrees to return them to their homes.

"The Brig was Bottom Up" - The New York Tribune

She had nearly 300 slaves on board; They were being taken to Mexico to work at starvation wages; All supposed to be lost

1891-11-30

San Francisco, Nov. 20 - In a brig dispatch from Manzanillo comes news of the wreck of the brig Tahiti, with every soul on her, 270 South Sea slaves, missing. This wreck is a noteworthy one, as it marks the failure of the first extensive attempt at "black-birding" on the Pacific Coast.

"The Tahiti Carried No Slaves" - New York Tribune

H. H. Leavitt Believed to have Perished with the Passengers

1891-12-01

In the account published in The Tribune yesterday of the wreck of th brig Tahiti, the dispatch, which of passengers, 270 in number, all of whom are believed to be lost, as "South Sea slaves." Humphrey H, Leavitt, of this city, who was a three-fourths owner of the brig, and Captain C. Erickson, who was in command, are also supposed to have perished.