The American Slave Trade (Spears)/Chapter 4
CHAPTER IV
THE SLAVER AND HER OUTFIT
There were Tiny Ships in the Trade — One Vessel had a Capacity of 5,000 Gallons of Molasses Only, and Even Open Row-Boats were used in the Nineteenth Century — Dimensions of a Slaver's Timbers — The Famous Venus, a Forerunner of the Yankee Clippers — Steamers that were in the Trade — The Blubber Kettles of Whalers used for Boiling Rice and Yams — Rum, Guns, and Coin were the Favorite Articles of Traffic, but Silks, Laces, Parasols and Other Goods for the Use of Women of Education and Delicate Tastes were Wanted — A Naval Officer's Estimate for a Slaver's Outfit.
The Desire, built at Marblehead, in 1636, was the earliest American slaver of which we have the size, and she, as already noted, was "a vessel of 120 tons." Another slaver of those days was the Oak Tree, "Jansen Eykenboom, from Hoorn, master under God." In a charter-party dated "in the year of the birth of our Lord and Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ, 1659, the 25th of January," under which the Oak Tree was to "sail, with the first favourable wind and weather which God may vouchsafe, from the harbor [New York] direct toward the coast of Africa," the size of the ship is given: “In length 120 ft, in width 2512 ft, draft 11 ft, above the waterline 5 to 6 ft, with a poop deck."
The average New England slaver was much smaller, The sloop Welcome that cleared from Newport for Barbadoes had a capacity of 5,000 gallons of molasses. The Fame, a noted slaver and privateer of Newport, had a Keel seventy-nine feet long. She was just about as long on the water-line as the Newportbuilt defenders of the America's cup. Her beam was twenty-six and a half feet, which was about the width of the widest defender.
The brigantine Sanderson, in which Captain David Lindsay made fame, carried 10,000 gallons of molasses.
A contract made by Caleb Clapp and Stephen Brown, who were ship-builders at "Warren, in the County of Bristole, in the colony of Rhode Island," in 1747, gives some interesting dimensions of a brigantine they had on the stocks. She was to be "sixty feet length of keel, straight rabbet, and length of rake forward to be fourteen feet, three foot and onehalf of which to be put into the keel, so that she will then be sixty-three feet keel and eleven feet rake forward. Twenty-three feet by the beam, ten feet in the hold, and three feet ten inches betwixt decks, and twenty inches waste. Rake abaft to be according to the usual proportions, to have a sufficient false stern. Keel to be sided thirteen inches."
A vessel of 500 tons would have, in these days, a keel no larger than that. The "betwixt decks" space is worth remembering, because the slaves were stowed there.
In 1808 the trade was outlawed, while twelve years later it was declared piracy, and a few war-ships were sent out to suppress it. Two kinds of vessels were used thereafter. One kind included slender schooners built for speed; the other kind included large ships,a few only of which were swift. The large ones were fitted out by men who meant to get rich at a single stroke. The small ones were used by men who found the trade congenial. These last would have been sneak-thieves in a criminal career ashore; the others, highwaymen.
We have definite figures regarding some of the vessels provided for the sneaking slavers, because some of them were captured and accurate measurements were made. In 1847 the Felicidade, of sixty-seven tons; the Maria, of thirty tons, and the Rio Bango, of ten tons, were captured, all loaded with slaves in a manner to be described further on; though it may be said here that the Maria, a vessel, say, fifty feet long and sixteen wide, had two hundred and thirty-seven on board when taken. Some New York oyster sloops are larger than she was.
The smaller vessels were built, in some cases, in such fashion that the crew could take down the masts and use oars. This gave them every advantage in escaping from the cruisers that must show sails above the horizon when ten miles or more away.
Even the ten-ton schooner was not the limit. Open row-boats no more than twenty-four feet long by seven wide landed as many as thirty-five children in Brazil out of, say, fifty with which the voyage began.
The finest ship of the large class was the Venus, a vessel of four hundred and sixty tons, built at Baltimore, at a cost of $30,000. So swift was this vessel that when chased on the coast of Africa her captain actually shortened sail in order to play with the Man-o'-war. There was nothing under sail that could equal her in her day. She landed over eight hundred slaves on her first voyage, with a net profit not far from three hundred dollars per head.
A few steamers were known in the trade. The Providencia in four voyages landed 4,500 slaves in Brazil. Another one called the Cacique is better known. She was originally the Tigress, belonging to a Captain Sanford, and was plying between New York and Stonington. Sanford sold her to a Brazilian merchant named Sexias for $11,500. Sexias spent $13,500 in repairs and alterations. "In these transactions Mr. Gardner, an American resident in that city [New York], appears to have acted as agent, and he was looked upon then and afterward, by the Americans belonging to the vessel, as the consignee, and there is reason to believe he engaged in fitting out other steam vessels for the same purpose."
The Cacique took on 1,000 slaves at Cabenda and could have made a safe voyage with these, but Sexias waited for the local agents to collect five hundred more and was captured by a British cruiser in consequence.
The old whaler became a favorite slaver type, because her try-pots could cook yams and rice as well as try oil, and her barrels carry either oil or water.
One of the last and undoubtedly the most noted of the whaler-slavers was the bark Augusta, of New York. Gilbert H. Cooper testified, after the Augusta was seized, that he "purchased portions of the same vessel at the rate of $2,000 for the whole," and that he sold her to Appleton Oaksmith for $4,900, including $1,800 worth of outfittings for the voyage, or $3,100 for the ship alone—"which was $1,000 more than the [other] owners had authorized me to sell her for."
As the eighteenth century passed away the improvements in merchant shipping, so far as improvements were made, were due chiefly to the enterprise of slave-merchants, and at the beginning of the nineteenth century there was nothing afloat of their size that could overhaul the slavers that were aa into privateers during the war of 1812.
In the nineteenth century the slave-trade had relatively much less influence on shipping, but it is certain that the Venus from Baltimore was the forerunner of the splendid Yankee clippers whose voyages previous to the Civil War astonished the maritime world. It is certain, too, that the building of small, swift schooners enriched many a Yankee ship-yard owner in the years before our Civil War. If the sole end of government were the promotion of business interests, then it might be said that those officials who winked at the doings of slavers served their country well.
What goods were used in the slave-trade has been recorded in many official documents. Here is the bill of lading of the Sierra Leone, a Yankee slaver in the middle of the eighteenth century.
There is no reason to suppose that the invocations to the Deity were a mere vain following of custom. There is the record of ‘"one good old elder, whose ventures on the coast had uniformly turned out well." He "always returned thanks on the Sunday following the arrival of a slaver in the harbor of Newport, that an overruling Providence has been pleased to bring to this land of freedom another cargo of benighted heathen, to enjoy the blessing of a Gospel dispensation."? As the author of "Examen de l'Esclayage en Général," a French pro-slavery work, says: "Devotion was at that time the great occupation in Europe; and it was believed that Christians and sugar might easily be made at the same time."
In 1801, when the prices on the slave-coast were at the highest, the following goods were given for one prime slave. The list is quoted from Gower Williams:
The captain of another slave-ship, writing in 1757, gives a list of his cargo as follows:
"Have on bord 140 hhds. Rum for owners, 100 lbs. Provitions, 12 Thousand lbs. bread, six 4-pounders, 4 swevles & 4 cowhorns [a kind of gun], small arms, &c."
In the earliest days rum was the best article for the purchase of slaves. At the end of the eighteenth century, when slaves were obtained chiefly by murderous raids, arms were of first consequence. And then when the slavers established great depots and barracoons on the slave-coast a time came when coin was wanted more than any other commodity.
When Commodore M. C. Perry was in command of the African squadron he sent the following letter to Washington:
At Sea, January 25, 1844.
Goods suitable for the African trade, to comprise a cargo for a vessel of two hundred and fifty tons,
40 hogsheads tobacco, long leaf and small head, Virginia. 100 barrels powder, in 10 and 20 pound kegs. American cotton goods, consisting of furniture and apron checks, bleached and unbleached muslins, blue handkerchiefs, calicoes, blue drill, blue bafts or salempores, English dry goods, viz. . blue and white bafts satin stripes, romanes, tomcoffees. 100 barrels beef, pork and mackerel. 100 barrels flour, 25 barrels kiln-dried cornmeal. 2,000 pounds refined sugar, 1,000 pounds brown sugar, 20 kegs butter, 20 kegs lard, 20 boxes sperm candles, 50 boxes soap. 2,000 pounds hams, 1,000 pounds sides and shoulders, 400 pounds beef tongues. 300 pounds cheese, 20 boxes raisins, 50 barrels pilot and navy bread. Half dozen quarter casks of wine, madeira, port and sherry. Tea in two-pound caddies, young hyson and gunpowder, 500 pounds coffee. Crockery, consisting of C. C. wash basins, painted quart and pint mugs and jugs, say 100 dozen of each. Tin pans, assorted sizes, say 50 dozen. Tin buckets with bales, four gallon size, 100 dozen. Wooden buckets, painted, say 25 dozen. Gentlemen's boots and shoes, 100 pairs, assorted, principally large sizes. Ladies' shoes, kid and prunelle, 100 pairs, assorted, Gentlemen's half hose, ladies' cotton stockings of good quality, 50 dozen each. 100 dozen palm-leaf hats, assorted, Blank books, paper, ink and quills, in equal proportion, say $50 worth, 400 pounds white lead, 30 gallons paint oil, 30 gallons lamp oil. Brass kettles and pans, say 1,000 pounds, two-eighth kettles, About 5500 laid out in articles of good quality for ladies; muslin, lace, insertion, silk gloss, silk stockings, small quantity of black silk, needles, pins, thread in spools and hanks, ribbons for bonnets, a few bonnets &c., 10 boxes good Spanish cigars in quarter boxes, If there be plenty of room, put in 500 feet of boards, 20 kegs of cut nails, assorted sizes, say 4, 6, 7, and 8 penny. 2 dozen silk and 5 dozen cotton umbrellas, A small quantity of ale, porter, and cider, the best quality, say 50 dozen each of ale and porter, and 26 of cider.
Cutlasses and muskets are in demand for trade, but can be furnished much cheaper from England than from the United States. Those brought out are of an inferior quality.
This list has been received from an authentic source, and is now forwarded to the Navy Department, by
Commanding African Squadron.
Note.—Whiskey, or rum, is a profitable article of traffic, but is purposely omitted in this list.