The South Sea Company and the Atlantic Slave Trade

The South Sea Company (SSC), founded in London in 1711, was one of history’s largest slaving entities. Granted the Spanish Crown’s asiento, it held exclusive rights to transport enslaved people to the Spanish Empire. Between 1713 and 1739, it forcibly transported 42,000 Africans to the Americas and relocated 48,000 from the British Caribbean.

Despite the SSC’s central role in the Atlantic slave trade, it is primarily remembered for the speculative bubble that developed around its stock in 1720—a financial crisis often called the “First Crash,” which has been the subject of over a dozen books. In contrast, no single book has been dedicated to examining the South Sea Company’s involvement in the slave trade.

This conference will address that oversight by exploring the SSC’s role in human trafficking across six expert panels. Discussions will begin with an examination of the company's archival records and financial backers, followed by its operations in the British Caribbean, the role of its trading agents, and its slave trafficking in the Spanish Americas. The event will conclude by addressing the broader legacies of the South Sea Company’s slave trade.

Funding provided by USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute and The John Haskell Kemble Maritime Fellowship Endowment.

Key Details

• Conference registration is for both days and includes general admission to The Huntington.
• Lunch reservations close on May 12 at noon. A limited number of lunch tickets will be available for purchase at the conference.

Day of Program

• Please bring your registration confirmation with you.

Conference Schedule

Schedule is tentative and subject to change. 

Friday, May 16, 2025

8:30 a.m. | Registration and Coffee

9 a.m. | Welcome

• Susan Juster (The Huntington), Daniel B. Domingues da Silva (Rice University) 

9:15 a.m. | Session 1: The Investors in the South Sea Company’s Slave Trade

• Moderator: Daniel B. Domingues da Silva (Rice University)
• Carl Wennerlind (Barnard College)  
  “Silencing Slavery: Credit Fetishism and The South Sea Company”
• Matthew Mitchell (University of the South)
  “The Duke of Chandos and his Bubbles”

10:45 a.m. | Break

11 a.m. | Session 2: The South Sea Company’s Traffic in the Spanish Americas

• Moderator: John Marquez (University of California, Riverside)
• Miguel Rodrigues (Lancaster University)
  “The Slaving Activities of the ‘Compañía del Mar del Sur’ in the Spanish Official Records”
• Paola Vargas Arana (University of Manchester)
  “The Far-Reaching Impact of the South Sea Company: Branded African Bodies in the Gold Mines of Antioquia, New Granada”

12:30 p.m. | Lunch

2 p.m. | Session 3: The South Sea Company’s Slave Trade in the British Caribbean

• Moderator: Carla Pestana (University of California, Los Angeles)
• Elise Mitchell (Swarthmore College)
  “Crossings and Quarantines: Enduring the South Sea Company’s Slave Trade”
• Greg O’Malley (University of California, Santa Cruz)
  “Never the Twain Shall Meet: The Strangely Separate Histories of the South Sea Bubble and the Company’s Trade in People’”

Saturday, May 17, 2025

8:30 a.m. | Registration and Coffee

9 a.m. | Session 4: Unlocking the Archives of the South Sea Company

• Moderator: Vanessa Wilkie (Huntington Library)
• Taylin Nelson (Rice University)
  “Linking the South Sea Company Papers to SlaveVoyages.org: A Report from the Frontlines”
• John Mulligan (Rice University)
  “SlaveVoyages Docs: Enabling Primary Source Openness and Discoverability across Institutions and Platforms”
  

10:30 a.m. | Break

10:45 a.m. | Session 5: The South Sea Company’s Slave Trading Agents

• Moderator: Alex Borucki (University of California, Irvine)
• Desirée Baptiste (Independent Scholar)
  “Hidden in Plain Sight: John Bristow (1701-1768), South Sea Company Sub-Governor & Contraband Smuggler”
• Adrian Finucane (Florida Atlantic University)
  “South Sea Company Agents and Prisoners of War in Times of Conflict”

12:15 p.m. | Lunch

1:45 p.m. | Session 6: The Legacies of the South Sea Company’s Slave Trade

• Moderator: Hannah Young (University of Greenwich)
• Anderson Jeremiah (The Church of England)
  “Engaging with the Past: Church and the Legacies of Transatlantic Chattel Slavery”
• William Pettigrew (Lancaster University)
  “Contrasting Legacies from South Sea Company Stock and Old Annuities”

3:15 p.m. | Closing Remarks: Nicholas Radburn (Lancaster University)

For questions about this event, please email researchconference@huntington.org or call 626-405-3432.