Sailors and Slaves: USS Constellation and the TransAtlantic Slave Trade by Joh n Pentangelo
"This being the first Slaver, I ever saw w ith slaves, my curiosity led me upon the Slave deck. The scene which here presented itself to my ey es bajfies description. It was a d readful sight. They were all packed together like so many sheep; men, women, and child ren entirely naked, and sufferingfrom hunger and thirst. They had nothing to eat or drink fo r over thirty hours. As soon as the poor negroes were aware that we werefriends to them, they commenced a shouting and yelling like so many w ild Indians. They were so overjoyed at being taken by us that I thought they would tear us to pieces. " 1 - Ordinary Seaman W illiam Ambrose Leo nard, USS Constellation, 25 September 1860, after his ship captured the American barque Cora with 705 Africans aboard. rom 1859 to 186 1, sloop-of-war U SS Constellation (1 854) served as flagsh ip of the United States Navy's African Squadron, a fleet of vessels with orders to p ro tect American commerce and supp ress the transAtlantic slave trade off the West Coast of Africa. During Constellation's rwo-year cruise, the squadron , then consisting of eight sail- and steam-powered vessels, captured fo urteen slave ships and liberated almost 4,000 Africans from a future life of servitude in the Americas. The crew endured hardships of rhestation, worked with Africans to supp ress the trade, and experienced one of the most important events in Constellation's century of service to the United States Navy on that fa tefu l night in September. T he United States ou tlawed th e transAdantic slave trade in 1808 but provided li ttle enforcement. After repeated frustrations with its inability to seize American-Bagged slave ships, Great Brit-
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ain fi nally convinced the United States to to Monrovia, Liberia, to augment her crew es tablish its own African Squadron . The with fo rry African Kroomen. These memWebster-Ashbur ton Treary, signed in bers of the Kroo tribe served as 1842, declared that both nations paid crew members fo r the would maintain separate naval entire cruise. squadrons on the West Coast While images of Africa to enforce their of the slave trade respective laws against the are appro priately slave trade. associated wi th USS Constellation, th e Afri cans under the command of who end ured Captain John S. N ichounspeaka ble las, weighed anchor in horrors of the Boston Harbor and set Middle Passage, sail for Africa on 19 July little is written 1859. The all-sail, 22-gun about the role some sloop-of-war served as the West African seafarheadquarters vessel of the ers played in combatAfrican Squadron's new Hag ofing the transAdantic ficer W illiam Inman. Constellaslave trade. For detion arrived at the Portuguese Flag Officer William Inman cades, commanders island of Madeira in August to relieve USS Cumberland. In October, she sailed south
of both squadrons employed Kroomen to serve as auxiliary seamen, lighter-men, and longshoreman to transport men and supplies from ship to shore. Kroomen were recruited from shore on a "first-come, fi rst-served" basis. Renowned fo r their physical strength, they often worked in th e nude or with just a cloth wrapped aro und their waists. Their arrival onboard Constellation in October 1859 made quite an impression on the American sailors. W illiam Leonard recalled that, "the ship is swarmed with th em presenting their reccommendations, [sic] .. . to our captain. USS Constellation in 1862 by Tomaso de Simone
Constellation served as flagship of the US Navy's African Squadron from 1859-1861, during which time, the squadron captured fourteen slave vessels, returning nearly 4, 000 abducted Africans to Africa. 10
SEA HISTORY 132, AUTUMN 20 I 0