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Printed stitched foolscap wraps, (2), 15, (1)pp English text and French text translated into English, including 3 full-page tables in French. Very good, tanned with some foxing, and ms page numbers to top corner of rectos. The correspondents include Consul-General of Egypt Evelyn Baring, Egyptian Slavery Department Director Lt-Col Charles Schaefer (author of the reports and data), Egyptian Interior Minister Abdel Kader, and Egyptian Council of Ministers President Mustapha Riaz Pasha. The Slavery Department had been formed as the Slave Trade Bureau in 1884 with Schaefer as its head, to raid slave dealers in Egypt and Sudan, search for unlawful caravans, and enforce Egypt's 1877 abolition of the trade in African slaves in Egypt. In 1887 the Bureau was incorporated as a Department into the Ministry of Interior, giving Schaefer "broad jurisdiction" over antislavery policy and greater access to Baring and the British Foreign Office, with Baring, an enthusiastic supporter, forwarding his reports verbatim, including for example details of how returning Egyptian Hajjis would seek to bring in slaves under the guise of marriage (ref. Eve Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism, 2003: 144ff). This document contains three reports from Baring to the British Prime Minister Lord Salisbury, dated 6, 12, and 16 Feb 1887. The first advises on the importation of slaves to Egypt by pilgrims returning from Mecca, enclosing Schaefer's report, and steps taken to prevent recurrence. The second includes the Report and Statistics of Schaefer's Slavery Department for 1886, with details on Esneh, the difficulty of obtaining convictions, and the rapid decline of slavery in Egypt. The third further addresses Mecca pilgrims passing slaves through the Suez Canal, with Schaefer's memo on remedial actions. Schaefer's tables are remarkably detailed. The first individually lists 41 slaves imported during the 1886 Hajj season, nominally broken down for Sudan and Abyssinia distinguishing males and females, giving their names, the names of their proprietors, and observations. The second and third give the number of slaves freed by month during Jan-Dec 1885, and Jan-Dec 1886, broken down by province or Governorate in Upper and Lower Egypt. Seller Inventory # 5230
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