RENEWAL OF PIRACY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE AT THE CLOSE OF THE EUROPEAN WAR—BRITISH SQUADRON—TREATIES WITH THE NATIVES—ORIGIN OF BARRACOONS—USE OF THE AMERICAN FLAG IN THE SLAVE-TRADE—OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE ON THE SUBJECT—CONDITION OF SLAVES ON BOARD OF THE SLAVE-VESSELS—CASE OF THE VELOZ PASSAGEIRA—FRENCH SQUADRON.
It was the cessation of the last great European war, which assembled the matured villany of the world on the African coast to re-establish the slave-trade. This traffic had been suspended during the latter years of the contest, as England and the United States had abolished it, and the former was strong enough at sea to prevent other European powers from engaging in it. In fact, she had swept almost the whole European marine from the ocean. The treaties formed at the peace, left Europe to the strife between anarchy and despotism; and gave up the coast of Africa to the slave-trade and piracy.
Every evil and every fear which have harassed the world since that time, seem to be the retributions of an indignant Providence. Let it not be imagined that these dealings of justice with men are at an end. What could atone for giving up the coasts of a whole continent to be ravaged by the slave-ships of France, Spain, and Portugal? What compensation for this vicious and deadly scourge has Africa yet received? The cruising, suffering, sickness, deaths and expenses of nearly half a century have not remedied the crime of signing these treaties. The ambassador, minister, or whoever he was, that signed them, bears a load of guilt, such as few mortal men have assumed.
England set about remedying this in a more commendable spirit, as soon as the years of free and unrestricted crime, which she had really granted to these nations, were run out. During about twenty years subsequently, when treaties with these powers had granted mutual right of search and capture, three hundred vessels were seized, having slaves on board. But during the latter part of this period, more than one hundred thousand half-dead negroes were annually landed from slave-vessels in Cuba and Brazil.
In 1839 the corrective was more stringently applied. Permission had then, or soon after, been wrung from different slave-trading powers, to capture vessels outward-bound for Africa, when fitted for the slave-trade, as well as after they had taken in their cargoes. The treaties provided that vessels equipped for the traffic might be captured, so as to prevent the crime. A slaver was thus to be taken, because she was a slaver; just as it is better to shoot the wolf before he has killed the sheep than afterwards. If a vessel, therefore, was found on the African coast with slave-irons, water in sufficient quantity for a slave-cargo, with a slave-deck laid for packing slaves—somewhat as the carcases of sheep and pigs in a railway train, with the exception of the fresh air—she was seized and condemned before committing the overt act. Under this arrangement, with a rigorous squadron, double the number of captures were made, during the next ten years, as compared with the previous twenty.
Seeing, then, that, as before noticed, one thousand and seventy slave-vessels were captured, and of the slaves who were not dead, a great proportion were landed at Sierra Leone, and that the whole population of that colony, although established for nearly sixty years, does not amount to more than forty-five thousand souls, young and old, it may be conceived what a fearful waste of life has arisen even from deliverance.
The efforts of this squadron were conjoined with those of France and the United States. The former had withdrawn from the treaty stipulating the right of search, and sent a squadron of her own to prevent French vessels from engaging in the slave-trade; and the United States, which never has surrendered, and never will surrender, the inviolability of her own flag to a foreign power, guaranteed, in 1842, to keep a squadron on the coast. These, together with other subsidiary means, had reduced the export of slaves in 1849 to about thirty-seven thousand, from one hundred and five thousand. And since that period the trade has lessened, until in Brazil, the greater slave-mart, it has become almost extinct; although at times it has been earned on briskly with the island of Cuba.
The subsidiary means alluded to arose out of the presence of the squadrons, and would have had no effect without them. They consist in arrangements, on the part of England, with some of the native powers, to join in checking the evil, and substitute legal trade, and in the conversion of the old slave-factories and forts into positions defensive against their former purpose.
These measures have also prepared the way for the establishment of Christian missions, as well as permitted to legitimate traffic its full development. Missions and the slave-trade have an inverse ratio between them as to their progress. When the one dwindles, the other grows. Although it was no ostensible purpose of the squadron to forward missions, yet the presence of cruisers has been essential to their establishment and success.
Trade of all kinds was originally an adjunct to the slave-trade. Cargoes were to be sold where they could find a purchaser. Gold, ivory, dye-stuffs and pepper were the articles procured on the coast. All of these are from exhaustible sources. The great vegetable productions of the country, constituting heavy cargoes, have but lately come into the course of commerce. Hunting and roaming about supplied the former articles of commerce. The heavier articles now in demand require more industry with the hands, and a settled life. Trade thus becomes inconsistent with slavery, and hostile to it; and the more so as it becomes more dependent on the collection of oil, ground-nuts, and other products of agriculture. Covering the coast now with trading establishments, excludes the slaver. The efforts of the squadrons were necessary to carry out this proceeding, for commerce needed to be protected against the piracies of the slaver afloat and the ravages of the slaver on shore.
Exposure to capture gave origin to the barracoons. A slaver could no longer leisurely dispose of her cargo, at different points, in return for slaves who happened to be there. The crime now required concealment and rapidity. Wholesale dealers on shore had to collect victims sufficient for a cargo to be taken on board at a moment’s notice. This required that the slaver should arrive at the station, with arrangements previously made with the slave-factor, ready to “take in;” or that she should bring over a cargo of goods in payment for the slaves.
In the case of falling in with British cruisers, an American slaver was inviolate, on presenting her register, or sea-letter, as a proof of nationality, and could not be searched or detained. But the risk of falling in with American cruisers, especially if co-operating with the British, led to the disguise of legal trading; with a cargo corresponding to the manifest, and all the ship’s papers in form. An instance of this occurred, as will be seen, in the capture of the second slaver by the “Perry.”
The American flag, in these ways, became deeply involved in the slave traffic. How far this acted injuriously to the interests of Africa, is seen in the complaints of Buchanan and Roberts, and in the reports of our ministers and consuls, and of those of the English, at Brazil. In 1849, the British consul at Rio, in his public correspondence, says: “One of the most notorious slave-dealers in this capital, when speaking of the employment of American vessels in the slave-trade, said, a few days ago: ‘I am worried by the Americans, who insist upon my hiring their vessels for slave-trade.’”
Of this there is also abundant and distressing evidence from our own diplomatic officers. Besides a lengthy correspondence from a preceding minister near the court of Brazil, the President of the United States transmitted a report from the Secretary of State, in December, 1850, to the Senate of the United States, with documents relating to the African slave-trade. A resolution had previously passed the Senate, calling upon the Executive for this information.
In these documents it is stated that “the number of American vessels which, since the 1st of July, 1844, until the 1st of October last (1849), sailed for the coast of Africa from this city, is ninety-three.... Of these vessels, all, except five, have been sold and delivered on the coast of Africa, and have been engaged in bringing over slaves, and many of them have been captured with slaves on board.... This pretended sale takes place at the moment when the slaves are ready to be shipped; the American captain and his crew going on shore, as the slaves are coming off, while the Portuguese or Italian passengers, who came out from Rio in her, all at once became the master and crew of the vessel. Those of the American crew who do not die of coast-fever, get back as they can, many of them being compelled to come over in slave-vessels, in order to get back at all. There is evidence in the records of the consulate, of slaves having started two or three times from the shore, and the master and crew from their vessel in their boat, carrying with them the flag and ship’s papers; when, the parties becoming frightened, both retroceded; the slaves were returned to the shore, and the American master and crew again went on board the vessel. The stars and stripes were again hoisted over her, and kept flying until the cause of the alarm (an English cruiser) departed from the coast, and the embarkation was safely effected.”
On the other hand, we have the following notice from Brazil: “As in former years, the slave-dealers have derived the greatest assistance and protection for their criminal purposes, from the use of the American flag, I am happy to add that these lawless and unprincipled traders are at present deprived of this valuable protection, by a late determination of the American naval commander-in-chief on this station, who has caused three vessels, illegally using the flag of the United States, and which were destined for African voyages, to be seized on their leaving this harbor. This proceeding has caused considerable alarm and embarrassment to the slave-dealers; and, should it be continued, will be a severe blow to all slave-trading interests.”
Mr. Tod, the American Minister at the court of Brazil, in a letter to the Secretary of State, says: “As my predecessors had already done, I have, from time to time, called the attention of our government to the necessity of enacting a stringent law, having in view the entire withdrawal of our vessels and citizens from this illegal commerce; and after so much has been already written upon the subject, it may be deemed a work of supererogation to discuss it further. The interests at stake, however, are of so high a character, the integrity of our flag and the cause of humanity being at once involved in their consideration, I cannot refrain from bringing the topic afresh to the notice of my government, in the hope that the President may esteem it of such importance as to be laid before Congress, and that even at this late day, legislative action may be secured.”
In this communication, a quotation is made from Mr. Proffit, one of the preceding ministers, to the Secretary of State, February, 1844, in which he says: “I regret to say this, but it is a fact not to be disguised or denied, that the slave-trade is almost entirely carried on under our flag, in American-built vessels, sold to slave-traders here, chartered for the coast of Africa, and there sold, or sold here—delivered on the coast. And, indeed, the scandalous traffic could not be carried on to any great extent, were it not for the use made of our flag, and the facilities given for the chartering of American vessels, to carry to the coast of Africa the outfit for the trade, and the material for purchasing slaves.”
Mr. Wise, the American Minister, in his dispatch of February 15th, 1845, said to Mr. Calhoun:
“It is not to be denied, and I boldly assert it, that the administration of the imperial government of Brazil, is forcibly constrained by its influences, and is deeply inculpated in its guilt. With that it would, at first sight, seem the United States have nothing to do; but an intimate and full knowledge of the subject informs us, that the only mode of carrying on that trade between Africa and Brazil, at present, involves our laws and our moral responsibilities, as directly and fully as it does those of this country itself. Our flag alone gives requisite protection against the right of visit, search, and seizure; and our citizens, in all the characters of owners, consignees, of agents, and of masters and crews of our vessels, are concerned in the business, and partake of the profits of the African slave-trade, to and from the ports of Brazil, as fully as the Brazilians themselves, and others in conjunction with whom they carry it on. In fact, without the aid of our own citizens and our flag, it could not be carried on with success at all.”
To exhibit the state of the slave-trade prior to the equipment treaty in 1840, we have the following instances from parliamentary papers, and other British authority:
“La Jeune Estelle, being chased by a British vessel, inclosed twelve negroes in casks, and threw them overboard.”
“M. Oiseau, commander of Le Louis, a French vessel, in completing his cargo at Calaba, thrust the slaves into a narrow space three feet high, and closed the hatches. Next morning fifty were found dead. Oiseau coolly went ashore to purchase others to supply their place.”
The following extract is from a report by Captain Hayes to the Admiralty, of a representation made to him respecting one of these vessels in 1832:
“The master having a large cargo of these human beings chained together, with more humanity than his fellows, permitted some of them to come on deck, but still chained together, for the benefit of the air, when they immediately commenced jumping overboard, hand in hand, and drowning in couples; and (continued the person relating the circumstance) without any cause whatever. Now these people were just brought from a situation between decks, and to which they knew they must return, where the scalding perspiration was running from one to the other.... And men dying by their side, with full in their view, living and dead bodies chained together; and the living, in addition to all their other torments, laboring under the most famishing thirst (being in very few instances allowed more than a pint of water a day); and let it not be forgotten that these unfortunate people had just been torn from their country, their families, their all! Men dragged from their wives, women from their husbands and children, girls from their mothers, and boys from their fathers; and yet in this man’s eye (for heart and soul he could have none), there was no cause whatever for jumping overboard and drowning. This, in truth, is a rough picture, but it is not highly colored. The men are chained in pairs, and as a proof they are intended so to remain to the end of the voyage, their fetters are not locked, but riveted by the blacksmith; and as deaths are frequently occurring, living men are often for a length of time confined to dead bodies: the living man cannot be released till the blacksmith has performed the operation of cutting the clinch of the rivet with his chisel; and I have now an officer on board the Dryad, who, on examining one of these slave-vessels, found not only living men chained to dead bodies, but the latter in a putrid state.”[4]
In the notorious Spanish slaver, the Veloz Passageira, captured with five hundred and fifty-six slaves, after a severe action, the captain made the slaves assist to work the guns against their own deliverers. Five were killed and one desperately wounded.
“This Veloz Passageira had acquired so atrocious a reputation, that it became an object with our commanders to make a special search for her. Captain Arabin, of the North Star, having information on his homeward voyage that she would cross his course near the equator, made preparations to attack her, though the North Star was of much inferior strength. Dr. Walsh, who was coming home in the British vessel, relates, that at breakfast, while the conversation was turning on the chances of meeting with the slaver, a midshipman entered the cabin, and said, in a hurried manner, that a sail was visible to the northwest. All rushed on deck, and setting their glasses, distinctly saw a large ship of three masts, apparently crossing their way. In about an hour she tacked, as if not liking their appearance, and stood away before the wind. The English captain gave chase. Escape seemed impracticable. The breeze freshened, her hull became distinctly visible, and she was now ascertained to be a slaver. She doubled, however, in all directions, and seemed to change her course each moment to avoid her pursuers. Five guns were successively fired, and the English union-flag hoisted, but without effect; and the wind now dying away, the North Star began to drop astern. We kept a sharp look-out, with intense interest, leaning over the netting, and silently handing the glass to one another, as if a word spoken would impede our way. Thus closed the night. When morning dawned we saw her, like a speck on the horizon, standing due north. The breeze increased, and again the British captain gained on the slaver. Again long shots were sent after her, but she only crowded more sail to escape. At twelve we were entirely within gunshot, and one of our long bow guns was again fired at her. It struck the water along side, and then for the first time she showed a disposition to stop. While we were preparing a second, she hove to, and in a short time we were alongside of her, after a most interesting chase of thirty hours; during which we ran three hundred miles.”
After all she was not the ship for which Captain Arabin had been looking out, but she was full of slaves. “Behind her foremast was an enormous gun, turning on a broad circle of iron, and enabling her to act as a pirate if her slaving speculation had failed. She had taken in on the coast of Africa five hundred and sixty-two slaves, and had been out seventeen days, during which she had thrown overboard fifty-five.
“The slaves were all inclosed under grated hatchways between decks. The space was so low that they sat between each other’s legs, and stowed so close together that there was no possibility of their lying down or at all changing their position, by night or day. As they belonged to, or were shipped on account of, different individuals, they were all branded like sheep, with the owners’ marks, of different forms. These were impressed under their hearts, or on their arms, and as the mate informed me, with perfect indifference, “burnt with the red-hot iron.” Over the hatchways stood a ferocious-looking fellow, with a scourge of many-twisted thongs in his hand, who was the slave-driver of the ship; and whenever he heard the slightest noise below, he shook it over them, and seemed eager to exercise it. I was quite pleased to take this hateful badge out of his hand; and I have kept it ever since as a horrid memorial of the reality, should I ever be disposed to forget the scene I witnessed.
“As soon as the poor creatures saw us looking down at them, their dark and melancholy visages brightened up. They perceived something of sympathy and kindness in our looks, which they had not been accustomed to; and feeling instinctively that we were friends, they immediately began to shout and clap their hands. One or two had picked up a few Portuguese words, and cried out, Viva! viva! The women were particularly excited. They all held up their arms, and when we bent down and shook hands with them, they could not contain their delight: they endeavored to scramble up on their knees, stretching up to kiss our hands, and we understood they knew we were coming to liberate them. Some, however, hung their heads in apparently hopeless dejection; some were greatly emaciated, and some, particularly children, seemed dying. But the circumstance which struck us most forcibly was, how it was possible for such a number of human beings to exist, packed up and wedged together as tight as they could cram, in low cells, three feet high, the greater part of which, except that immediately under the grated hatchways, were shut out from light and air; and this, when the thermometer, exposed to open sky, was standing in the shade on our deck at 89°. The space between decks, divided into two compartments, was three feet three inches high; the size of one was 16 feet by 18, and of the other 40 by 21; into the first were crammed the women and the girls, into the second the men and boys. Two hundred and twenty-six fellow-creatures were thus thrust into one space of 288 square feet, and three hundred and thirty into another space of 800 square feet, giving the whole an average of 23 inches; and to each of the women not more than 13 inches. We also found manacles and fetters of different kinds; but it appeared that they all had been taken off before we boarded. The heat of these horrid places was so great, and the odor so offensive, that it was quite impossible to enter them, even had there been room. They were measured as above when the slaves had left them. The officers insisted that the poor suffering creatures should be admitted on deck, to get air and water.... On looking into the places where they had been crammed, there were found some children next the sides of the ship, in the places most remote from air and light; they were lying nearly in a torpid state, after the rest had turned out. The little creatures seemed indifferent as to life or death; and when they were carried on deck, many of them could not stand. After enjoying, for a short time, the unusual luxury of air, some water was brought; it was then that the extent of their sufferings was exposed in a fearful manner. They all rushed like maniacs towards it. No entreaties, or threats, or blows could restrain them; they shrieked, and struggled and fought with one another, for a drop of this precious liquid, as if they grew rabid at the sight of it. There is nothing which slaves, in the mid-passage, suffer from so much as want of water. It is sometimes usual to take out casks filled with sea-water as ballast, and when the slaves are received on board, to start the casks and refill them with fresh. On one occasion, a ship from Bahia neglected to change the contents of the casks, and on the mid-passage found, to their horror, that they were filled with nothing but salt-water. All the slaves on board perished.”
At the time of this seizure, Brazil was precluded from the slave-trade north of the equator; but the period had not arrived when, by treaty, the southern trade was to be extinguished. “The captain of this slaver was provided with papers, which exhibited an apparent conformity to the law, and which, false as they may have been, yet could in no way be absolutely disproved. The accounts of the slaves themselves, who stated they had originally come from parts of Africa north of the line—the course which the slaver was steering—her flight from the English cruiser—were circumstances raising suspicion the most violent; but the reader will be not a little disappointed to learn, that, with all this, the case was deemed too doubtful, in point of legal proof, to bear out a legal detention; and the slaver therefore, after nine hours of close investigation, was finally set at liberty, and suffered to proceed.... It was dark when we separated, and the last parting sounds we heard from the unhallowed ship, were the cries and shrieks of slaves, suffering under some bodily infliction.”—Walsh, vol. ii. pp. 474-484.
The question arises, ought not humanity to have overcome all these considerations, and led to the deliverance of the victims? If one death in such circumstances had occurred, ought not a sense of justice to have led to the detention of the slaver, and the conveyance of the captain to his own government, to be tried for murder?
The traders of France were nearly in the same position with those of the United States, and there was the same necessity for guarding against the abuse of their flag. Before proceeding to the proper history of the American squadron in its efforts for the great purposes it had in view, it may be advisable briefly to notice that France, in 1845, had formed with England a treaty under which both parties engaged to keep a squadron of not less than twenty-six cruisers on the coast. The number was afterwards, by a separate agreement, reduced on the part of France to twelve vessels.
The reasons for this, and the few captures made by French vessels, apply as well to the American cruisers, and account for the nature of the stipulation in the treaty of Washington, that the United States should only employ on the African coast a squadron of eighty guns. These two nations have not, as England has, the right by treaty with other powers, to interfere with any vessels except their own. Hence the captures made by English cruisers necessarily outnumbered greatly the captures made by both the other powers.
The duty of the American and French squadron was in fact restrictive in respect to their own citizens alone; and while indispensable for the general success of these operations, they could not exhibit any thing like the same amount of result in captures, whatever might be the zeal and activity of the cruisers. Several slavers, however, have been captured by this squadron; and its presence has restrained the employment of the French flag in that traffic.