Talk:Robert Bostock (slave trader, born 1743)

Not ironic

I have removed the comment about it being "ironic" that "his family tree now includes two mixed race Aboriginal branches", because that is not what the citation sates. The suggestion of irony, presumably situational irony, is based on subjective sense of expectation as regards a slave trader have mixed race descendants. However, such an expectation would seem to be based on ignorance as regards how European slave traders behaved, particularly those who established factories in West Africa. Bruce Mouser's Landlords-Strangers: A Process of Accommodation and Assimilation and Trade, Coasters, and Conflict in the Rio Pongo from 1790 to 1808 are very good on this. His research is based on an area further north around the Nunez River and the Pongo River. One of the important points that he makes is that European slave traders frequently married the daughters of local African chiefs as a way of ensuring their right to maintain a factory in their Father-in-laws territory. To what extent they hold for the area around Cape Mesurado, where Robert Bostock's son - also called Robert Bostock ran his slave trading factory needs to be explored. (Mark Mitchell has claimed Robert Bostock (the father) had run a factory with his two sons on the River Nunez. As his son, Robert, was nine when his father died, this seems highly unlikely! I can't find my copy of Mouser's American Colony on the Rio Pongo: The War of 1812, the Slave Trade, and the Proposed Settlement of African Americans, 1810-1830 – things have been quite chaotic since I moved house, but that certainly sheds light on the situation in Guinea and what was to become Liberia. But the point of all of this is that when Robert Bostock, the son, set up in business in St Paul River, there is a very real possibility that he may have married a local African women. There were many occasions when these European traders subsequently left their mixed-race families, and indeed did not regard the "marriage" as binding if it had not been solemnised by a recognised Christian minister. Robert Bostock, the son, was in a different position, as he was seized by Captain Scobell and left the area involuntarily.

I noticed that you have put the material I removed back, along with some incorrect information which actually relates to Robert Bostock, the son, and his settlement in Australia. All this needs to be removed. I will not go into why your claim that Robert Bostock, the son, was not a slave trader, here, because that discussion needs to go on the relevant talk page.

One last point, you ask "Are you a racist???" I don't understand why you ask such a question, and indeed I find it in breach of the Wikipedia policy Wikipedia:Assume good faith. I would be grateful if you would take the trouble to read the policy and take note that "editors should not attribute the actions being criticized to malice unless there is specific evidence of such." i.e. your question is not appropriate, unless you are able to show some reason to think that I am a racist. Leutha (talk) 00:22, 5 August 2021 (UTC)