Peter Baker (slave trader)

Peter Baker (1731–1796) was a privateer, shipbuilder, Lord Mayor of Liverpool, and notable English slave trader.

Baker and Dawson were most active between 1783-1792 as two of the largest slave trading figures in the Corporation of Liverpool, enslaving many thousands of people.

[3] In the period between 1783 and 1792, Baker and his partner John Dawson were the largest firm of slave traders in England.

[5] The contract was arranged by two intermediaries named Barry and Black and gave them exclusive access to disembark enslaved people in Cuba and the other Spanish West Indies islands.

[11][10] By 1773, Baker and Co. was given the contract to build the Kent, a 1100-ton burthen ship that, at the time, was the largest to be built in a Liverpool northern dockyard.

[9][12] This success drew the British Navy's attention to Baker, who went on to build four naval vessels between 1774-1779 (Penelope, Adamant, Assistance, and Ariel).

[10][citation needed] In 1777 Baker and Co. was in a low period, having had few shipbuilding contracts that year and having suffered mercantile losses.

Completed in 1778, the Mentor was refused by the firm who ordered it, dubbing it "cranky and ramshackle,"[15] a dubious claim given Baker's shipbuilding expertise at the time.

Her cargo included a box of jewels valued at £135,000, as well as gold bullion bringing the total estimate of treasure to between £400,000-500,000.

[10][17] Prior to Baker venturing out on Mentor, he had leased his shipyard to his then-manager (a man named Barton) for a period of 18 years.

[10][citation needed] While the venture was successful, the lease stood, and so Baker lacked a shipyard to continue his shipbuilding enterprise in earnest.

[23] Williams writes "The spectacle of the corporation, the members of which must have been perfectly well acquainted with the horrors of the slave trade, appealing to the House of Lords to uphold the infamy of the town, is a melancholy, but striking example of the power of usage and self-interest in blunting the moral vision of men".