Continental Origins of Insular Proslavery: George Dawson Flinter in Curaçao, Venezuela, Britain, and Puerto Rico, 1810s-1830s^*

Origens Continentais da Ideologia Escravocrata Insular: George Dawson Flinter em Curaçao, na Venezuela, Reino Unido, e Porto Rico, nas décadas de 1810-1830

Abstract

This article traces the career and migrations of George Dawson Flinter, a naturalized Spanish subject of Irish origin, who became a prominent apologist for slavery and Spanish colonial rule in the Caribbean in the 1820s and 1830s. It argues that Flinter's experiences in the revolutionary Americas, especially in Venezuela, shaped his attitudes toward slavery, freedom, race, and social order, which he promoted on behalf of the Spanish regime as a propagandist in Britain and in Puerto Rico. Flinter's writings, loyalties, and migrations throw new light on the sources of proslavery thought, not only in the Spanish Caribbean, but also in the broader Atlantic world during the consolidation of the second slavery.

Keywords:
violence; fear; second slavery; independence; refugees; revolution