THE CROWNING CRIME:

The International Slave Trade
by Glenn Williams, Curator, U.S.S. Constellation

Many Americans today think they know "the whole story" when it comes to the enslavement of African natives on plantations in the American South. Most know that disagreement over "our peculiar institution" fueled a growing sectional conflict that erupted into civil war in 1861. Few, however, are aware of the efforts the United States government took against slavery, without interfering with the powers afforded the several states by the Constitution. The first target was the international trade in human beings being imported for slave labor. The task of enforcing anti-slave trade legislation in international waters fell to the United States Navy. One of its cruisers, USS Constellation, played a most interesting role as an instrument of that national policy to eradicate what some abolitionists called "the Crowning Crime of Christendom."

1. THE SLAVE TRADE:

• How It Began and Flourished
• The African Coast in 1858

2. VICTIMS AND VILLAINS: Who Paid and Who Profited

• The Slaves
• The Slave Traders

3. RIGHTING THE WRONG: The Human Conscience Awakens

• U.S. Government Acts Against the Slave Trade

4. THE LIBERATORS: Fighting the Slave Trade

• The U.S. Navy Challenges the Slavers
• The Slave Smuggling Ship Cora

5. LINKS: Related Sites.

6. BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Selected Primary and Secondary Reference Source

THE SLAVE TRADE

THE AFRICAN COAST IN 1858

The map of mid-nineteenth century Africa was vastly different from what it is today. Scores of tribes and petty kingdoms, which were often at war with one another, dotted the landscape.

Almost every tribe held prisoners captured in battle, or kidnapped, from their rivals as slaves. As a result, human labor was treated and traded like any other commodity. Many of these tribes conducted a lucrative business selling their captives in exchange for rum, textiles, jewelry, tobacco, iron hardware, firearms, and other goods.

Hundreds of European, American and Arab trading posts, called "factories," were found along the fringes of the continent. Many of the merchants were satisfied doing a legitimate business trading for the products of the rain forest, such as palm oil, nuts, ivory, gums, and hardwoods, to sell on the world market.

Some, however, dealt in what they euphemistically called "black ivory." This export was shipped out of isolated coves, usually at night, and in great haste. The trade was profitable. A healthy slave could be purchased in Africa for $50 dollars, and sold to the owners of plantations in Cuba, Brazil or the southern United States at $200 or more.

VICTIMS AND VILLAINS

THE SLAVES

African natives who were sold into slavery were usually already weakened from the ordeal of their capture and being marched to a rendezvous where they were loaded on board ship. The voyage from Africa to the West Indies could take from 40 to 60 days.

Slave ships were Hell on Earth. Packed below deck in a dense mass, in a space generally only four feet high, they passed day and night in the most miserable conditions. In scorching heat, without ventilation or room enough to sleep, and having to heed the calls of nature in nearby tubs, sickness could spread rapidly.

With daily allowances of food and water barely sufficient to keep them alive, a delay in crossing could result in the already meager rations being exhausted. Starvation and sickness took their toll, and as many as one in five died, and were thrown overboard to the sharks. The suffering was incredible.

THE SLAVE TRADERS

As the slave trade became a hazardous business for individuals, those engaged formed joint-stock companies. The companies employed men, and some women, from many occupations. Many did so as a sideline to the more respectable pursuits of their professions, and may not have even been aware of what business they were assisting.

Few actually dickered with African tribal leaders or haggled with plantation owners at either end of the process.

Most worked in the middle: as the captains, mates, seamen, cooks, doctors, and supercargoes of ships. There were merchants who shipped goods for trading with the native leaders, and dealers in the rice, boilers and medicines that were used on the ships for feeding and treating the slaves.

There were stevedores who loaded cargo aboard, and ship fitters that made alterations to the vessels. There were shipping agents and brokers who processed the port documents, lawyers who defended those arrested, and even fictitious owners and captains who lent their names to voyages managed by others.

Difficult to distinguish from ships engaged in legitimate business, auxiliaries carried goods used by agents to buy slaves, and returned empty, or with the stranded crews of captured and abandoned slave ships as passengers.

RIGHTING THE WRONG

THE HUMAN CONSCIENCE AWAKENS

The slave trade had flourished for centuries, and many English, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and American merchants enjoyed its profits. By the 1800s, the world was awakening to the horror, death and misery aboard slave ships. As the dispute over slavery as a labor system edged the United States towards regional conflict, even many of its supporters detested the inhumanity of the trade.

In 1794, the United States took the first action by any nation against the international slave trade by prohibiting the outfitting of ships within its ports if they were destined to carry slaves from one foreign country to another. . (USSAL, Vol. I, Sections 1-2, 347-349)

In 1800 it became illegal for American citizens to carry African natives for sale from one country to another. (USSAL, Volume II, Sections 2-3, 70-71)

In 1808 Congress outlawed the importing of slaves from Africa to the United States. (USSAL, Vol. II, Sections 2-3, 451) And in 1820, Congress declared that the transporting of slaves was an act of piracy, and could be punishable by death. (USSAL, Vol. III, Sections 4-5, 690-691)

In 1807 Parliament also legislated the British Empire out of the slave trade, and became the leading advocate for suppressing it. Under British prodding other nations followed. Spain, Portugal and Brazil even allowed the Royal Navy to police their shipping and take the violators before mixed courts.

France and the United States refused to surrender their sovereignty, and directed their own squadrons to protect their legitimate merchantmen, as well as capture slave traders.

THE LIBERATORS

THE U.S. NAVY CHALLENGES THE SLAVERS

The U.S. Navy was ordered enforce the law against the importation of African slaves, first in the Caribbean Sea. When the United States African Squadron was established in 1843, it expanded the Navy's role in interdicting the smuggling of slaves to the west coast of Africa from stations off the mouth of the Congo River. For performing this arduous duty, the government paid a bounty of $25 for each slave liberated, and "prize money," the proceeds obtained when the ship was sold at auction, divided among the crew by rank.

On April 20, 1859, Secretary of the Navy Isaac Toucey designated USS Constellation flagship, or headquarters vessel, of the U.S. African Squadron, under the command of Flag Officer William Inman.

The British Consul at St. Helena drew this map of the west coast of Africa in 1858, "showing Portuguese forts and trading posts," for Flag Officer Inman (NARA, Old Navy RG 45).

On 21 December 1859 Commodore Inman reported to Secretary Toucey:

Although many of the vessels seized by Constellationand the rest of the African Squadron were empty, this was not always the case. On September 26, 1860, Inman reported "the capture of a Barque [Cora] with no flag and a cargo of 705 slaves." (NARA, Old Navy RG 45)

Constellation (right) and her crew contributed to this effort with the capture of three slave ships: the brig Delicia on December 21, 1859, the bark Cora on September 25, 1860, and the brig Triton on May 21, 1861.

When a slaver was seized, African natives found on board were taken to Monrovia, Liberia and set free. The ship's crew was usually landed and released, while the captain and officers were bound and waited for trial in U.S. District Court. The vessels were taken to American ports where they were sold at auction by the government.

While the effectiveness of the overall operation may be debated, Inman proudly reported to the Secretary of the Navy that during its twenty-two months under his command, the squadron rescued 3,754 slaves, nearly half the total freed between 1850 and 1861.

SLAVING VESSEL CORA

The bark Cora was a 405-ton vessel built at Baltimore in 1851. Registered in New York, she became a slaving vessel in 1860, only to be captured carrying 705 slaves by USS Constellation on September 25 of that year off the Congo River.

Cora was sailed to Norfolk by a prize crew from Constellation. John Latham, Morgan Fredericks, John Wilson and Hans Olsen, the Captain, and First, Second and Third Mates, respectively, as well as four seamen of Cora's crew, were turned over to the U.S. Marshall, and charged with violating the acts of 1800 and 1820. U.S. Attorney James Roosevelt presented "Libel of Information," first page seen at left, in U.S. District Court (NARA, Northeast Region, Judiciary Rcords, RG O-21).

Tried on January 12, 1861 in U.S. District Court, Southern New York district, the records of Criminal Docket I, 245 show that Latham was still in custody in May 1861, but subsequently escaped. Fredericks escaped before trial. Wilson and Olsen pleaded guilty to violating the act of 1800 in November 1861, and were sentenced to ten months in prison and $500 fines each. The government did not prosecute the four sailors. The ship was sold for $8,900, and the cargo for $696.62.

LINKS

For more information on the USS Constellation's history as flagship of the U.S. African Squadron from 1859 to 1861, go to www.constellation.org

or:

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, American Memory Project Exhibit on the Slave Trade: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtme/exhibit.html

NATIONAL ARCHIVES: www.nara.gov

U.S. NAVY HISTORICAL CENTER: http://www.history.navy.mil

NAVAL HISTORICAL FOUNDATION: http://mil.org.navyhist

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PRIMARY SOURCES:

Unpublished Documents James C. Lawrence, "Journal of a Cruise amongst the Madeira, Canary and Cape Verde Islands, and the West Coast of Africa, 1844 & 45," Diary, Handwritten, with Typewritten Manuscript (TMs). Located in Special Collections, U.S. Naval Academy Archives, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz Library, Annapolis, MD.

William A. Leonard, Diary (1859-1861), Handwritten. Located in the private collection of Richard L. Jasse, Ph.D., his great-grandson, Rocky Mount, VA.

GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS:

National Archives Records Administration (NARA), Old Navy Records:

• Lists of Officers assigned to Vessels 1834-1865, Record Group (RG) 45.
• Muster Rolls, U.S. Navy Ships 1813-1861, Microfilm T-829, Roll 2, RG 45.
• Correspondence of the Secretary of the Navy, Directives, 1798-1895, Entry M977, RG 45.
• Letters from the Commanding Officers of Squadrons ("Squadron Letters"), and Captains of Cruisers ("Captains' Letters") to the Secretaries of the Navy, 1841-1866, Microfilm File M89, RG 45.
• Letters of Rear Admirals, Commodores and Captains to the Secretaries of the Navy, 1805-1862, Microfilm File M125, RG 45.
• Deck Logs, USS Constellation, 1855-1893, RG 45.

NARA, NORTHEAST REGION, OLD JUDICIARY RECORDS:

Records of U.S. District Court for New York, Southern District, 1861, Admiralty Dockets 16-72, 16-216 and 17-150; and Criminal Docket I, 245, RG O-21.

PUBLISHED SOURCES:

William French (Interview with), "Chasing Slavers with Old Wooden Navy," Springfield Daily Republican, 16 September 1924. Original clipping preserved and in the private collection of Beverly M. Martinoli, his great-granddaughter, in Oxford, CT.

William French (Interview with), "City's Oldest Adventurer Seeks Post on Old Battle Scarred Warship," Springfield Union, 27 July 1926. Microfilm File, Springfield Valley Historical Museum Library, Springfield, MA.

Warren S. Howard, American Slavers and the Federal Law 1837-1862, Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1963.

Calvin Lane, "The African Squadron: The U. S. Navy and the Slave Trade, 1820-1862," The Log of Mystic Seaport, Volume 50, No. 4, Spring 1999.

Nathan Miller, The U.S. Navy, A History, Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1997.

Hugh Thomas, The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440-1870, New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1997.

U.S. Navy Department, Official Record of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series 1, Volume 1, Operations of Cruisers January 19, 1861 to December 31, 1862, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1894.

United States Statutes at Large, Volumes I - III, Boston, MA: Little Brown, 1845-1866.

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