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The Wanderer (slave ship)
Encyclopedia
The Wanderer is the last documented ship to bring a cargo of slaves from Africa to the United States (on November 28, 1858). Stories of subsequent mass landings of slaves have been told, but are in dispute (see, Buchanan Administration, below.)
When the Wanderer reached Jekyll Island, Georgia from Africa, approximately 409 of the enslaved Africans had survived. The federal government prosecuted the owner and crew, but failed to win a conviction, although there was outrage in the North about the slave ship. During the American Civil War
, Union forces took over the ship and used it for various roles.
In November 2008 the Jekyll Island Museum
unveiled an exhibit dedicated to the enslaved Africans on the Wanderer. A memorial sculpture has been erected on the island as well.
Even after the US outlawed the slave trade, people tried to evade the law. The Wanderer was built in 1857 and in 1858 it was partially outfitted for a long voyage. The ship flew the pennant of the New York Yacht Club
. Although there was speculation about the ship, it was inspected and there was no conclusive evidence that it was to be a slave ship
, so it was allowed to pass.
The captain sailed to Angola
, Africa where over 10 days he had shelves and pens built in to accept a shipment of 490-600 slaves, who were loaded on the ship. Many of the slaves died on the six-week journey across the Atlantic Ocean. The Wanderer reached Jekyll Island
, Georgia
on November 28, 1858 and delivered 409 slaves alive.
A prosecution of the slave traders was launched, but the defendants were found not guilty. The outrage aroused by the case was a contributing cause to the American Civil War
. Ironically, the prosecutor, Henry R. Jackson
, became a major general in the Confederate States Army
and one of the defendants, John Egbert Farnum, became a colonel
and brevet
brigadier general
in the Union Army
in the Civil War. During the war, the ship was seized by Union
troops and used for the Naval blockade
of the Confederate States of America
. (See .)
(Long Island
) shipyard in 1857 as a pleasure craft yacht for Colonel John Johnson. She was built to be one of the most impressive pleasure crafts in the world. This was clearly demonstrated as her streamlined design allowed the ship to achieve speeds of up to 20 knots, making Wanderer one of the fastest ships of the day. While on a trip to New Orleans, Johnson stopped in Charleston, South Carolina
and sold the Wanderer to William C. Corrie.
Corrie became a partner with wealthy businessman and cotton planter Charles Augustus Lafayette Lamar from Savannah, Georgia
, who hired him to transport slaves from Africa. Corrie managed conversion of the ship for that purpose. They were both opposed to restrictions on importing slaves. The Wanderer was returned to New York to undergo preparation for a long voyage.
Some observers accused the shipyard of preparing it as a slave ship. The ship was inspected and cleared on its voyage out. Public rumors of the ship's being involved in the slave trade persisted and were permanently associated with her name.
. After a six-week return voyage across the Atlantic, the Wanderer arrived at Jekyll Island, Georgia around sunset on November 28, 1858. The tally sheets and passenger records showed that 409 slaves survived the passage to arrive at Jekyll Island, which was owned by John and Henry DuBignon, Jr., who conspired with Lamar. These figures present a slightly higher mortality rate than the estimated average of 12 percent during the illegal trading era. Hoping to evade arrest, Lamar had the slaves shipped to markets in Savannah
and Augusta, Georgia
; South Carolina
and Florida
.
As the federal government investigated, news of the slave ship raised outrage in the North. On the other hand, Southerners continued to press for re-establishment of importing slaves. The federal government tried Lamar and his conspirators three times for piracy, but was unable to get a conviction. It failed to convince the jury of a connection between Lamar and the ship.
to strengthen the United States' role in anti-slave-trade efforts. Following the dispersion and sale of the 400 Africans throughout the South, there were rumors of subsequent slave ship landings in the region. Determine to discover the truth of these stories, the Buchanan Administration sent a "secret agent" named Benjamin F. Slocum on a two-month journey to search for evidence.
Slocum, working undercover, spoke with slave traders, plantation owners, and townspeople, hunting down every possible lead. In the end he delivered a detailed report, in which he concluded that the rumors of subsequent landings, "were founded upon the movements of the Wanderer negroes, or else they were mere fabrications, manufactured and circulated for political effect, or to fill a column in a sensation newspaper."
Based on that investigation, Buchanan reported to Congress on December 3, 1860 that "since the date of my last inqugural message not a single slave has been imported into the United States in violation of the laws prohibiting the African slave trade." (ref) Senate Executive Documents, 36 Cong., 2 Sess, No 1, Pt. 1 (Serial 1078), 24.
In April 1861, upon the outbreak of the American Civil War
, the United States Government seized Wanderer to prevent her from falling into the hands of the Confederate States of America
. She served in the United States Navy
from then until June 1865, serving as a gunboat
, a tender
, and a hospital ship
. Sold into mercantile service in June 1865, the Wanderer operated commercially until lost off Cape Maisí
, Cuba
, on 12 January 1871.
In the early 1900s, however, tales of slaving and slave ships became popular in the pulp press. Several fictional accounts of the Wanderers voyage were published in newspapers; there was even a novel written that spun a wild and completely imagined tale from the bare historical facts. About this time a story appeared in Harper's Monthly Magazine (CXIII, 1906), by a S. H. M. Byers. The story detailed a supposed voyage of a ship called the Clotilda. According to the story, Timothy Meagher, a plantation owner, bet some of his friends that he could bring a ship full of Africans into Mobile Bay, Alabama. In the summer of 1860, the story continued, Meagher succeeded: 110 slaves reached shore. Subsequently, the story concluded, Meagher was arrested and charged.
Despite the richness of Byer's story, its veracity is in dispute. In American Slavers and the Federal Law, 1837–1862 (Berkeley: U. of Ca. Press, 1963, P. 302) Professor Warren S. Howard noted that "the rumored landing of the Clotilda in Mobile Bay in July 1860 has been accepted by several historians as true, but no good evidence of it has ever been found. Moreover, three authors give three different versions of the affair, and not one offers a sound source for his assertions." As for the particular Harper's Monthly article, says Howard, "Byers, though claiming to have obtained his information from some of the Africans who were landed, gives numerous details about the business side of the voyage which must have been unknown to them; furthermore, he cites no authority for these details."
Whether the Clotilda story is true, and to what extent it is based on any real occurrence, may never be known. That is why the Wanderer is still considered the last documented slave ship to reach America. As historian David M. Potter noted in his Pulitzer Prize-winning history, The Impending Crisis: 1848–1861, (NY: Harper Perennial, 1977, P. 397), "Apparently everyone in the South in the late 1850s knew someoone who knew someone else who had seen a coffle of slaves direct from Africa. But no one who had seen them has left any testimony. One ship, the Wanderer, did bring a cargo of slaves from Africa in 1858, and this bizarre event was apparently reenacted many times in the imagination."
career
When the Wanderer reached Jekyll Island, Georgia from Africa, approximately 409 of the enslaved Africans had survived. The federal government prosecuted the owner and crew, but failed to win a conviction, although there was outrage in the North about the slave ship. During the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, Union forces took over the ship and used it for various roles.
In November 2008 the Jekyll Island Museum
Jekyll Island Museum
The Jekyll Island Museum is a history center in the historic district of Jekyll Island of Georgia, USA.The historic Club Stables, located on Stable Road, is now the home of the Jekyll Island Museum...
unveiled an exhibit dedicated to the enslaved Africans on the Wanderer. A memorial sculpture has been erected on the island as well.
Summary
Upon ending the slave trade in all British colonies in 1808, the British began pressuring other nations to end their slave trades. At the same time, the British began pressuring the African rulers to stop exporting people as slaves. The United States officially outlawed the importation of slaves in 1808. It did not use its own ships to enforce the law until 1859, when U.S. naval ships joined British patrol ships in the Caribbean to intercept slavers.Even after the US outlawed the slave trade, people tried to evade the law. The Wanderer was built in 1857 and in 1858 it was partially outfitted for a long voyage. The ship flew the pennant of the New York Yacht Club
New York Yacht Club
The New York Yacht Club is a private social club and yacht club based in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1844 by nine prominent sportsmen. The members have contributed to the sport of yachting and yacht design. The organization has over 3,000 members as of 2011. ...
. Although there was speculation about the ship, it was inspected and there was no conclusive evidence that it was to be a slave ship
Slave ship
Slave ships were large cargo ships specially converted for the purpose of transporting slaves, especially newly purchased African slaves to Americas....
, so it was allowed to pass.
The captain sailed to Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
, Africa where over 10 days he had shelves and pens built in to accept a shipment of 490-600 slaves, who were loaded on the ship. Many of the slaves died on the six-week journey across the Atlantic Ocean. The Wanderer reached Jekyll Island
Jekyll Island
Jekyll Island is an island off the coast of the U.S. state of Georgia, in Glynn County; it is one of the Sea Islands and one of the Golden Isles of Georgia. The city of Brunswick, Georgia, the Marshes of Glynn, and several other islands, including the larger St. Simons Island, are nearby...
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
on November 28, 1858 and delivered 409 slaves alive.
A prosecution of the slave traders was launched, but the defendants were found not guilty. The outrage aroused by the case was a contributing cause to the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. Ironically, the prosecutor, Henry R. Jackson
Henry R. Jackson
Henry Rootes Jackson was a major general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.-Biography:...
, became a major general in the Confederate States Army
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...
and one of the defendants, John Egbert Farnum, became a colonel
Colonel (United States)
In the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, colonel is a senior field grade military officer rank just above the rank of lieutenant colonel and just below the rank of brigadier general...
and brevet
Brevet (military)
In many of the world's military establishments, brevet referred to a warrant authorizing a commissioned officer to hold a higher rank temporarily, but usually without receiving the pay of that higher rank except when actually serving in that role. An officer so promoted may be referred to as being...
brigadier general
Brigadier general (United States)
A brigadier general in the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, is a one-star general officer, with the pay grade of O-7. Brigadier general ranks above a colonel and below major general. Brigadier general is equivalent to the rank of rear admiral in the other uniformed...
in the Union Army
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
in the Civil War. During the war, the ship was seized by Union
Union (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...
troops and used for the Naval blockade
Blockade
A blockade is an effort to cut off food, supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, either in part or totally. A blockade should not be confused with an embargo or sanctions, which are legal barriers to trade, and is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually...
of the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
. (See .)
Background
The Wanderer was built in a Port Jefferson, New YorkPort Jefferson, New York
The Incorporated Village of Port Jefferson is located in the town of Brookhaven in Suffolk County, New York on the North Shore of Long Island. As of the 2000 United States Census, the village population was 7,837...
(Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
) shipyard in 1857 as a pleasure craft yacht for Colonel John Johnson. She was built to be one of the most impressive pleasure crafts in the world. This was clearly demonstrated as her streamlined design allowed the ship to achieve speeds of up to 20 knots, making Wanderer one of the fastest ships of the day. While on a trip to New Orleans, Johnson stopped in Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
and sold the Wanderer to William C. Corrie.
Corrie became a partner with wealthy businessman and cotton planter Charles Augustus Lafayette Lamar from Savannah, Georgia
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...
, who hired him to transport slaves from Africa. Corrie managed conversion of the ship for that purpose. They were both opposed to restrictions on importing slaves. The Wanderer was returned to New York to undergo preparation for a long voyage.
Some observers accused the shipyard of preparing it as a slave ship. The ship was inspected and cleared on its voyage out. Public rumors of the ship's being involved in the slave trade persisted and were permanently associated with her name.
Arrival at Jekyll Island and publicity
In his ship's log, Corrie noted arriving at Bengula (probably Benguela in present-day Angola) on October 4, 1858. Wanderer took on 487 slaves at this port on the Congo RiverCongo River
The Congo River is a river in Africa, and is the deepest river in the world, with measured depths in excess of . It is the second largest river in the world by volume of water discharged, though it has only one-fifth the volume of the world's largest river, the Amazon...
. After a six-week return voyage across the Atlantic, the Wanderer arrived at Jekyll Island, Georgia around sunset on November 28, 1858. The tally sheets and passenger records showed that 409 slaves survived the passage to arrive at Jekyll Island, which was owned by John and Henry DuBignon, Jr., who conspired with Lamar. These figures present a slightly higher mortality rate than the estimated average of 12 percent during the illegal trading era. Hoping to evade arrest, Lamar had the slaves shipped to markets in Savannah
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...
and Augusta, Georgia
Augusta, Georgia
Augusta is a consolidated city in the U.S. state of Georgia, located along the Savannah River. As of the 2010 census, the Augusta–Richmond County population was 195,844 not counting the unconsolidated cities of Hephzibah and Blythe.Augusta is the principal city of the Augusta-Richmond County...
; South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
and Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
.
As the federal government investigated, news of the slave ship raised outrage in the North. On the other hand, Southerners continued to press for re-establishment of importing slaves. The federal government tried Lamar and his conspirators three times for piracy, but was unable to get a conviction. It failed to convince the jury of a connection between Lamar and the ship.
Buchanan Administration
The arrival of the Wanderer prompted the Buchanan AdministrationJames Buchanan
James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States . He is the only president from Pennsylvania, the only president who remained a lifelong bachelor and the last to be born in the 18th century....
to strengthen the United States' role in anti-slave-trade efforts. Following the dispersion and sale of the 400 Africans throughout the South, there were rumors of subsequent slave ship landings in the region. Determine to discover the truth of these stories, the Buchanan Administration sent a "secret agent" named Benjamin F. Slocum on a two-month journey to search for evidence.
Slocum, working undercover, spoke with slave traders, plantation owners, and townspeople, hunting down every possible lead. In the end he delivered a detailed report, in which he concluded that the rumors of subsequent landings, "were founded upon the movements of the Wanderer negroes, or else they were mere fabrications, manufactured and circulated for political effect, or to fill a column in a sensation newspaper."
Based on that investigation, Buchanan reported to Congress on December 3, 1860 that "since the date of my last inqugural message not a single slave has been imported into the United States in violation of the laws prohibiting the African slave trade." (ref) Senate Executive Documents, 36 Cong., 2 Sess, No 1, Pt. 1 (Serial 1078), 24.
Description of Wanderer slaves
The slaves who arrived to the United States on the Wanderer gained a celebrity status, that spread beyond the south to newspapers in New York, Washington, and London. They were the only group of slaves who were frequently identified with the ship which they arrived on. The tendency of newspapers and private correspondence to identify the slaves in this way showed there were no other known large-scale importations of African slaves in this period.Wanderers later career
During the next two years, ownership of the vessel changed several times. On one occasion, the ship was stolen and taken to sea on a piratical and slaving voyage. Near the coast of Africa, the first mate led a mutiny and left the pirate captain at sea in a small boat before bringing the ship back to Boston, Massachusetts, on 24 December 1859 and turning her over to authorities.In April 1861, upon the outbreak of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, the United States Government seized Wanderer to prevent her from falling into the hands of the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
. She served in the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
from then until June 1865, serving as a gunboat
Gunboat
A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.-History:...
, a tender
Ship's tender
A ship's tender, usually referred to as a tender, is a boat, or a larger ship used to service a ship, generally by transporting people and/or supplies to and from shore or another ship...
, and a hospital ship
Hospital ship
A hospital ship is a ship designated for primary function as a floating medical treatment facility or hospital; most are operated by the military forces of various countries, as they are intended to be used in or near war zones....
. Sold into mercantile service in June 1865, the Wanderer operated commercially until lost off Cape Maisí
Cape Maisí
Cape Maisí or Cape Maysí is a cape at the eastern extremity of Cuba, projecting into the Windward Passage.-References:* Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary, Third Edition. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 1997....
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, on 12 January 1871.
Legacy
Was the Wanderer the last slave ship to reach American shores? Most historians believed so, including historian W.E.B. Dubois, the first African-American graduate of Harvard University and later the head of the NAACP. In his landmark work of 1896, The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United States of America, 1638–1870, Dubois made this clear: The appendix of the book lists the voyages of dozens of slave ships, including the Wanderer, and suggests that no other ship reached America after the Wanderer. Even in a chapter titled, "Increase of the Slave Trade from 1850 to 1860, is any other ship suggested (other than the Wanderer) as having made that final voyage. Thirty-seven years after the landing of the Wanderer, in other words, no subsequent landings were noted.In the early 1900s, however, tales of slaving and slave ships became popular in the pulp press. Several fictional accounts of the Wanderers voyage were published in newspapers; there was even a novel written that spun a wild and completely imagined tale from the bare historical facts. About this time a story appeared in Harper's Monthly Magazine (CXIII, 1906), by a S. H. M. Byers. The story detailed a supposed voyage of a ship called the Clotilda. According to the story, Timothy Meagher, a plantation owner, bet some of his friends that he could bring a ship full of Africans into Mobile Bay, Alabama. In the summer of 1860, the story continued, Meagher succeeded: 110 slaves reached shore. Subsequently, the story concluded, Meagher was arrested and charged.
Despite the richness of Byer's story, its veracity is in dispute. In American Slavers and the Federal Law, 1837–1862 (Berkeley: U. of Ca. Press, 1963, P. 302) Professor Warren S. Howard noted that "the rumored landing of the Clotilda in Mobile Bay in July 1860 has been accepted by several historians as true, but no good evidence of it has ever been found. Moreover, three authors give three different versions of the affair, and not one offers a sound source for his assertions." As for the particular Harper's Monthly article, says Howard, "Byers, though claiming to have obtained his information from some of the Africans who were landed, gives numerous details about the business side of the voyage which must have been unknown to them; furthermore, he cites no authority for these details."
Whether the Clotilda story is true, and to what extent it is based on any real occurrence, may never be known. That is why the Wanderer is still considered the last documented slave ship to reach America. As historian David M. Potter noted in his Pulitzer Prize-winning history, The Impending Crisis: 1848–1861, (NY: Harper Perennial, 1977, P. 397), "Apparently everyone in the South in the late 1850s knew someoone who knew someone else who had seen a coffle of slaves direct from Africa. But no one who had seen them has left any testimony. One ship, the Wanderer, did bring a cargo of slaves from Africa in 1858, and this bizarre event was apparently reenacted many times in the imagination."
- 2008 - In the summer of 2008, on the south tip of Jekyll Island, the state of Georgia erected a monument to the voyage of the Wanderer, consisting of three 12-foot steel sails and several historical storyboards. And on November 25, 2008–150 years to the day following the arrival of the Wanderer on Jekyll—a dedication of the memorial was held. Attended by about 500 participants, including descendants of the original Wanderer slaves, as well as some of the descendants of the whites involved, the ceremony included prayers, songs, dancing by the Darien Geechgee Shouters and a speech by Erik Calonius, author of The Wanderer: The Last American Slave Ship and the Conspiracy that Set Its Sails, the book which was credited for reviving interest in the Wanderer story.
See also
for information on Wanderers United States NavyUnited States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
career
- Clotilde (slave ship)Clotilde (slave ship)The schooner Clotilde was the last known U.S. slave ship to bring slaves from Africa to the United States, arriving at Mobile Bay in autumn 1859 , with 110-160 slaves. The ship was a two-masted schooner, 86 ft long by 23 ft , and it was burned and scuttled at Mobile Bay, soon after...
External links
- Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships: Wanderer
- "An infamous voyage"
- The Last Slave Ship
- The Slave Ship Clotilda: An Untold Story
- Dreams of Africa in Alabama: The Slave Ship 'Clotilda' and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America
- Question of the Month: Cudjo Lewis: Last African Slave in the U.S.?
- Sylviane Anna Diouf
- Mobile Community Holds on to Unique African Heritage, Alabama Arts