Samuel Samo

Samuel Samo was a Dutch slave trader who was the first person to be prosecuted under the British Slave Trade Felony Act 1811.[1]

Samuel Samo
Conviction(s)feloniously dealing in slaves under the Slave Trade Felony Act 1811
Criminal penaltypardoned

Samuel Samo was the uncle of John Samo, a Dutch shopkeeper who served as King's Advocate and Member of His Majesty's Colonial Council of Sierra Leone. Samo was also a colleague of William Henry Leigh. On one voyage, 500 Africans died.[2][3]

Samo was based in the Îles de Los, a group of islands of Conakry in modern-day Guinea.[4] He was seized along with Charles Hickson from there in early 1812 and taken to Freetown, Sierra Leone to be put on trial.[4]

The trial was held under the auspices of the Vice admiralty court in Sierra Leone.[1] Robert Thorpe was the presiding judge.[3] Samo was charged with five counts of slave-trading between August 1811 and January 1812.[1] Samo was convicted but given a royal pardon by Governor Charles William Maxwell.[3] The convict was enjoined to never again engage in slave trading.[3] Two other slave traders were convicted in Sierra Leone between April and June 1812. William Tufft was sentenced to three years of hard labour, and Joseph Peters was sentenced to 7 years of transportation.

References
  1. Haslam, Emily (2012). "Redemption, Colonialism and International Criminal Law". In Kirkby, Diane (ed.). Past law, present histories. Canberra, Acton, A.C.T.: ANU E Press. ISBN 9781922144034.
  2. Swartz, B.K. (1980). West African Culture Dynamics: Archaeological and Historical Perspectives. United States: Walter de Gruyter.
  3. Trials of the Slave Traders Samo, Peters and Tufft . 1813 – via Wikisource.
  4. Schafer, Daniel l. (2003). Heuman, Gad J.; Walvin, James (eds.). The Slavery Reader, Volume 1. London: Routledge.
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