Bye Bye Blackbirder: the death of Ross Lewin

Abstract

The name Ross Lewin epitomises the brutal reputation of the South West Pacific labour trade of the nineteenth century. He brought the first Pacific Island labourers to Queensland on Robert Towns' schooner, Don Juan, in 1863, and continued recruiting activities until the early 1870s. Missionaries reviled him as a slave trader; Royal Navy captains pursued "the greatest man-stealer of them all" unsuccessfully. When Lewin was killed on Tanna, Vanuatu in April 1874 many felt he had received his just desserts. Subsequently his reputation has been variously embellished, accepted, and perpetuated by both popular accounts and academic histories. Yet he remains a mystery. This paper takes the death of Lewin as the starting point for an examination of the man behind the myth. We pose the question, "Who was Ross Lewin?" but find the answer elusive. The search uncovers a mix of conflicting evidence and assertion which, when juxtaposed against the Islander oral tradition of "blackbirding", demonstrates the challenges ahead of us to complete our planned life and times of Ross Lewin.