smelted in Swansea and exported to India was exchanged for an array of local
goods, particularly those made of cotton, which was the very textile that the Company sold to slavers for re-export to Africa. 74
Some of the domestic consumption of Swansea copper also indirectly
facilitated the slave trade. The timber hulls that sailed through tropical waters in
warmer latitudes fell victim to a species of mollusc, teredo navalis, which
particularly affected the section of the Royal Navy that protected the British
West Indian commerce and the slave ships involved in shipping sugar and other slave-produced goods. 75 Sheathing was almost abandoned in the early 1780s,
though, as fastening copper sheets to hulls was difficult because the iron bolts
corroded quickly. However, Thomas Williams, who produced copper at the
Upper and Middle Bank works using ore from the Parys Mountain mines, began
to manufacture hardened copper bolts and thus secured a contract with the Navy. 76 The advantages of sheathing were evident: greater speed, superior manoeuvrability, and less need for repairs. 77 Copper sheathing reduced voyage
times by 25 to 30 per cent for the vessels travelling to Asia for the East India
Company, and, for the slave owners, this reduction in travel time saved the lives of many slaves. 78 By meeting the demand for copper sheathing, Swansea copper not only guaranteed security for slave traders but also assisted slave ships in their voyage across the Atlantic. 79
Accordingly, there was no notable support for abolitionism in Swansea in
the late eighteenth century. In the late 1780s, the campaign against slavery
promptly emerged in England as committees in provincial areas began to collect
74 Evans, Slave Wales, p. 30. 75 Ibid. 76 Straw, p. 14. 77 Ibid., p. 31. 78 Thomas Williams quoted in J. Harris, The Copper King: A Biography of Thomas Williams of Llanidan (Liverpool: The University Press, 1964), p. 50; Miskell and Evans, p. 64. 79 Evans, Slave Wales, p. 31.
31
Made with FlippingBook HTML5