Africa and the American Flag

by Andrew H. Foote

Lith. of Sarony & Co. N. Y.

U. S. BRIG PERRY.

AMERICAN SLAVE SHIP MARTHA.

“off Ambria June 6^th 1850”—

In this it was stated to the commodore, that the Perry, agreeably to his orders, had made the best of her way for Ambriz, and arrived off that place on the 5th instant. It was there reported that the John Adams was probably at Loanda; and accordingly a course was shaped for that port. But on the 6th instant, at three o’clock in the afternoon, a large ship with two tiers of painted ports was made to windward, standing in for the land towards Ambriz. At four o’clock the chase was overhauled, having the name “Martha, New York,” registered on her stern. The Perry had no colors flying. The ship, when in range of the guns, hoisted the American ensign, shortened sail, and backed her main-topsail. The first lieutenant, Mr. Rush, was sent to board her. As he was rounding her stern, the people on board observed, by the uniform of the boarding-officer, that the vessel was an American cruiser. The ship then hauled down the American, and hoisted Brazilian colors. The officer went on board, and asked for papers and other proofs of nationality. The captain denied having papers, log, or any thing else. At this time something was thrown overboard, when another boat was sent from the Perry, and picked up the writing-desk of the captain, containing sundry papers and letters, identifying the captain as an American citizen; also indicating the owner of three-fifths of the vessel to be an American merchant, resident in Rio de Janeiro. After obtaining satisfactory proof that the ship Martha was a slaver, she was seized as a prize.

The captain at length admitted that the ship was fully equipped for the slave-trade. There were found on board the vessel, one hundred and seventy-six casks filled with water, containing from one hundred to one hundred and fifty gallons each; one hundred and fifty-barrels of farina for slave-food; several sacks of beans; slave-deck laid; four iron boilers for cooking slave-provisions; iron bars, with the necessary wood-work, for securing slaves to the deck; four hundred spoons for feeding them; between thirty and forty muskets, and a written agreement between the owner and captain, with the receipt of the owner for two thousand milreis.

There being thirty-five persons on board this prize, many of whom were foreigners, it was deemed necessary to send a force of twenty-five men, with the first and second lieutenants, that the prize might be safely conducted to New York, for which place she took her departure that evening.

Soon after the Martha was discovered, she passed within hailing distance of an American brig, several miles ahead of the Perry, and asked the name of the cruiser astern; on being told, the captain, in despair, threw his trumpet on deck. But on a moment’s reflection, as he afterwards stated, he concluded, notwithstanding, that she must be an English cruiser, not only from her appearance, but from the knowledge that the Perry had left for Porto Praya, and could not in the mean time have returned to that part of the coast. Therefore finding, when within gun-shot of the vessel, that he could not escape, and must show his colors, ran up the American ensign, intending under his nationality to avoid search and capture. The boarding-officer was received at the gangway by a Brazilian captain, who strongly insisted that the vessel was Brazilian property. But the officer, agreeably to an order received on leaving the Perry, to hold the ship to the nationality first indicated by her colors, proceeded in the search. In the mean time, the American captain, notwithstanding his guise as a sailor, being identified by another officer, was sent on board the Perry. He claimed that the vessel could not lawfully be subjected to search by an American man-of-war, while under Brazilian colors. But, on being informed that he would be seized as a pirate for sailing without papers, even were he not a slaver, he admitted that she was on a slaving voyage; adding, that, had he not fallen in with the Perry, he would, during the night, have shipped eighteen hundred slaves, and before daylight in the morning, been clear of the coast.

Possession was immediately taken of the Martha, her crew put in irons, and both American and Brazilian captains, together with three or four cabin passengers (probably slave-agents), were given to understand that they would be similarly served, in case of the slightest evidence of insubordination. The accounts of the prize crew were transferred, the vessel provisioned, and in twenty-four hours after her capture, the vessels exchanged three cheers, and the Martha bore away for New York.

She was condemned in the U. S. District Court. The captain was admitted to bail for the sum of five thousand dollars, which was afterwards reduced to three thousand: he then escaped justice by its forfeiture. The American mate was sentenced to the Penitentiary for the term of two years; and the foreigners, who had been sent to the United States on account of the moral effect, being regarded as beyond our jurisdiction, were discharged.

The writing-desk thrown overboard from the Martha, soon after she was boarded, contained sundry papers, making curious revelations of the agency of some American citizens engaged in the slave-trade. These papers implicated a number of persons, who are little suspected of ever having participated in such a diabolical traffic. A citizen of New York, then on the African coast, in a letter to the captain of the Martha, says: “The French barque will be here in a few days, and, as yet, the agent has no instructions as to her taking ebony [negroes, slaves].... From the Rio papers which I have seen, I infer that business is pretty brisk at that place.... It is thought here that the brig Susan would bring a good price, as she had water on board.... C., an American merchant, has sold the Flood, and she was put under Brazilian colors, and gone around the Cape. The name of the brigantine in which B. came passenger was the Sotind; she was, as we are told, formerly the United States brig Boxer.” Other letters found with this, stated: “The barque Ann Richardson, and brig Susan, were both sent home by a United States cruiser. The Independence cleared for Paraguay; several of the American vessels were cleared, and had sailed for Montevideo, &c., in ballast, and as I suppose bound niggerly; but where in hell they are is the big business of the matter. The sailors, as yet, have not been near me. I shall give myself no trouble about them. I have seen them at a distance. I am told that they are all well, but they look like death itself. V. Z. tells me they have wished a hundred times in his presence, that they had gone in the ship; for my part, I wish they were in hell, Texas, or some other nice place. B. only came down here to ‘take in,’ but was driven off by one of the English cruisers; he and his nigger crew were under deck, out of sight, when visited by the cruiser.”[8]