Wanderer was the penultimate documented ship to bring an illegal cargo of enslaved people from Africa to the United States, landing at Jekyll Island, Georgia, on November 28, 1858. It was the last to carry a large cargo, arriving with some 400 people. Clotilda, which transported 110 people from Dahomey in 1860, is the last known ship to bring enslaved people from Africa to the US.
Originally built in New York as a pleasure schooner, Wanderer was purchased by Southern businessman Charles Augustus Lafayette Lamar and an investment group, and used in a conspiracy to import kidnapped people illegally. The Atlantic slave trade had been prohibited under US law since 1808. An estimated 409 enslaved people survived the voyage from the Kingdom of Kongo to Georgia. Reports of the smuggling outraged the North. The federal government prosecuted Lamar and other investors, the captain and crew in 1860, but failed to win a conviction.
During the American Civil War, Union forces confiscated the ship and used it for various military roles. It was decommissioned in 1865, converted to merchant use, and lost off Cuba in 1871. Lamar himself would later become the last Confederate soldier to be killed in action during the war.
In November 2008, the Jekyll Island Museum unveiled an exhibit dedicated to the enslaved Africans on Wanderer.Jekyll Island Beachscape, vol. 5, #42, Nov/Dec 2008, p. 1 That month also marked the unveiling of a memorial sculpture on southern Jekyll Island dedicated to the enslaved people who were landed there.
Summary The trans-Atlantic slave trade was made illegal by both Britain and the United States in 1807, with the two laws coming into effect on 1 May 1807 and 1 January 1808, respectively. The Royal Navy started intercepting illegal slave traders off the coast of Africa in 1807, but serious enforcement activity started in 1808 with the establishment of the West Africa Squadron The British also worked to persuade other nations to end their involvement in slave trading. At the same time, the British began exerting pressure on the African rulers to stop exporting people as slaves.Herbert S. Klein, The Atlantic Slave Trade (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 183. In contrast, the United States made little effort to enforce their legislation until 1820 and 1821, when US naval ships patrolled the West African coast. A level of local co-operation was achieved between the two navies, but the US persisted in forbidding Royal Navy ships to board slavers flying the American flag. Consequently, US colors were a means by which slavers of many nations avoided interception. US Navy ships were next involved in anti-slavery patrols off Africa in 1842 as a result of the Webster–Ashburton Treaty, but with limited effect.
After the US outlawed the transatlantic slave trade, people continued to buy slaves in Africa and bring them to the US. As sectional tensions rose in the late 1850s, there was growing sentiment among some Southerners to reopen the slave trade.James Jordan, "Charles Augustus Lafayette Lamar and the Movement to Reopen the African Slave Trade", Georgia Historical Quarterly Vol. 93, No. 3 (Fall 2009), pp. 247–290, The Wanderer was built in 1857 and in 1858 it was partially outfitted for a long voyage. There was considerable speculation about the ship's projected use; it was inspected in New York harbor. As there was no conclusive evidence that it was to be used as a slave ship, it was allowed to pass. It departed flying the pennant of the New York Yacht Club and under command of Captain Corrie.Joye Brown, "The Wanderer", Newsday, 12 May 2009, accessed 12 May 2009
When the Wanderer stopped in Charleston, South Carolina, on its way to Africa, its mission was so well known that it was greeted with a cannon salute.
Corrie sailed to the mouth of the Congo River in the Kingdom of Kongo (present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo), which was then a Portuguese protectorate with a long-established slave market. For a period of 10 days, he had shelves and pens built into the hold in order to accept a shipment of 490–600 people, who were loaded on the ship. Most of the group were Kikongo speakers. Many of the people died on the six-week journey across the Atlantic Ocean. Wanderer reached Jekyll Island, Georgia on November 28, 1858, delivering 409 enslaved people alive.
A prosecution of the slave traders was launched, but the defendants were acquitted by the jury in Georgia. The outrage aroused by the case is believed to have contributed to increasing sectional tensions and the American Civil War. The US District judge, John Nicoll, was the father-in-law of Charles A. L. Lamar. The US prosecutor, Henry R. Jackson, became a major general in the Confederate States Army. Defendants John Egbert Farnum and Lamar served as officers on each side of the conflict. Farnum became a colonel and brevet brigadier general in the Union Army.Sifakis, Stewart. Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File, 1988. . pp. 212, 335 Lamar organized the 7th Georgia Battalion, and later served at the Battle of Columbus. He was the last officer to be killed in the Civil War. Also among the defendants was John Frederick Tucker, a planter and one of the owners of the ship through the investment group.Myers, Robert Manson. The Children of Pride. Yale University Press, 1972. . p. 1705
During the war, the ship was seized by Union troops and used for the Naval blockade of the Confederate States of America.
Background
Wanderer was built in a Setauket, New York (Long Island), shipyard in 1857 as a pleasure craft yacht for Colonel John Johnson. The vessel's streamlined design allowed the ship to achieve speeds of up to , making Wanderer one of the fastest ships of the day. While on a trip to New Orleans, Johnson stopped in Charleston, South Carolina. Later, upon his return to New York, Johnson sold the Wanderer to William C. Corrie of Charleston.
Corrie became a partner with wealthy businessman and cotton planter Charles Augustus Lafayette Lamar (son of Gazaway Bugg Lamar) from Savannah, Georgia. He was hired to transport slaves from Africa, although such importation had been prohibited since 1808 by federal law. Corrie achieved some elements of conversion, but much of the work was accomplished after the ship reached an Angolan port. Dan Chapman, "Slave ship's voyage of shame recalled", Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 23 Nov 2009, accessed 12 May 2009 Both men opposed the restrictions on importing slaves, as demand drove a high price for domestic 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.Tom H. Wells, The Slave Ship Wanderer (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1967), 8–10.
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 between the Congo and Benguela, which is located forty miles south of the Congo River.Tom H. Wells, The Slave Ship Wanderer (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1967), p. 21 After a six-week return voyage across the Atlantic, 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. They were landed at Jekyll Island, which was owned by John and Henry DuBignon Jr., who conspired with Lamar.Tom H. Wells, Wanderer, 30–31. These figures present a slightly higher mortality rate than the estimated average of 12 percent during the illegal trading era.Johannes Postma, The Atlantic Slave Trade (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003), 44. 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. Southerners pressed Congress to reopen the Atlantic trade. The federal government tried Lamar and his conspirators three times for piracy in Savannah, Georgia but was unable to get a conviction, possibly due to the jury composed of only white, Southern men. There has also been speculation that one of the judges in the case was Lamar's father-in-law.
However, Lamar and three other men were later arrested after trying to break another codefendant out of jail. They all later pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to rescue their. Each of them were sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined $250.
Buchanan administration
The arrival of Wanderer prompted the Buchanan administration 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. 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."Records of the office of the Secretary of the Interior, Relating to the Suppression of the African Slave Trade and Negro Colonization, 1854–1872, No. 160, Roll 4, The National Archives, Washington, 1949. Also, Ralph R. Davis Jr., "Buchanian Espionage: A Report on Illegal Slave Trading in the South in 1859", Journal of Southern History, vol. 16, no. 2, (May 1971), pp. 271–273.
Based on that investigation, Buchanan reported to Congress on December 3, 1860, that "since the date of my last inaugural message not a single slave has been imported into the United States in violation of the laws prohibiting the African slave trade."Senate Executive Documents, 36 Cong., 2 Sess, No 1, Pt. 1 (Serial 1078), 24.
Known survivors of the transport Names and descriptions of some of the survivors of the Wanderer are known. Some of the people transported on the Wanderer spoke the Yoruba language, were abducted "from some towns west of Abeckuta, by Dahomey slave hunters," and had been sold at Porto Nevo. Many had chest, arm and thigh tattoos, and some their teeth sharpened so they looked like of the blade of a saw. Their captors noted that some of the stolen people referred to whiskey as melapho.
According to Capt. A. C. McGhee, said to be a co-owner of the Wanderer, "They possessed many tricks of catching small animals and reptiles. One would stand in the middle of a field and make a peculiar noise with his mouth, which would attract a cloud of grassohppers. Catching them on the wing in his open hands he would devour them with great gusto. Raccoons, opossum, hares, and even skunks were regarded as great delicacies, and some of the older ones had a knack of catching and eating rattlesnakes." Another account claimed, "It was difficult to teach them to eat cooked food and use salt. They were expert swimmers, and caught fish with their hands, feeling In holes for them after deep diving." A third account reported that a number of survivors later committed suicide under the belief that "if they would jump into the sea and drown themselves they would be carried back to Africa by the good spirits...among them being one called King Mingo, who decoyed two children to St. Simon's beach, during the absence of his mistress, and all three of them jumped from a high bluff Into the swift current and were drowned."