Oct 02, 2012 - Sale 2287

Sale 2287 - Lot 438

Price Realized: $ 24,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
ENFORCING THE BAN ON THE TRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE (SLAVERY AND ABOLITION.) Naval archive of Commodore George Washington Storer of the Brazilian Squadron. More than 500 unbound letters and documents and 4 bound volumes (1.2 linear feet), various sizes and conditions; generally clean and fresh, with most of the items newly unfolded. Vp, 1817-58, bulk 1840-50
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George Washington Storer (1789-1864) of Portsmouth, NH was a career officer in the United States Navy. He was appointed a captain in the Brazilian Squadron in 1837, and served as commodore of that fleet from 1847 to 1850.
The Brazilian Squadron tended to a variety of American interests in the South Pacific, some relating to diplomacy with the volatile young republics in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. It also played an important role in enforcing the long-standing ban on American participation in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Brazil was the last nation which still permitted the importation of slaves, and unscrupulous American merchants continued to pursue a share of the profits. Storer's fleet, often in co-operation with the British Navy, walked a delicate line in hunting down these American slave traders while avoiding diplomatic incidents with Brazil. They succeeded in capturing four slavers during his years in command.
This collection includes numerous documents which relate directly to the efforts against the slave trade. Storer's 1847 initial orders from the Secretary of the Navy, John Y. Mason, include a mandate for "the repression of the slave trade," to "use every effort to arrest and bring to well merited punishment all persons who on the open seas may disgrace the American flag by making it in any way subservient to the pursuit or protection of this most nefarious commerce." Most dramatic is a long November 1848 letter from John I. Taylor, reporting on the discovery of a slave trading port at Cabo Frio, Brazil: "Upon the left of the entrance to the harbor . . . is a deposit for slaves, which is fitted up very neatly, and would accommodate about two thousand I should think. I ascertained from a number of persons at this place, that an American bark had landed upward of about eleven hundred slaves a day or two before we got there; and from the same persons I also ascertained that it was quite a common thing for American vessels to land negroes there, and indeed, at a number of places not very distant from there." Several letters describe ships that were searched or impounded by the Americans or British, often drawing lengthy protests from the Brazilians. A file of 8 documents relates to the successful capture of the slaver Laurens by the U.S.S. Onkahye on 23 January 1848.
In addition, the collection offers a wide-ranging look at the role of the United States Navy. Storer becomes involved in the case of a British youth who had stowed away on one of his ships; a mob which had attacked American citizens on the Brazilian island of Santa Catarina; and the ongoing education of the younger officers under his command. Many of the letters are signed by the various Secretaries of the Navy under whom Storer served, as well as other prominent naval leaders such as Commodore James Biddle. The correspondence offers insight into conditions in Argentina during Juan Manuel de Rosas's final years, and one file relates to the ongoing Siege of Montevideo. Two folio volumes record dozens of courts martial convened under Storer's command. This is a substantial archive which should attract researchers from a wide variety of angles. A folder list of the collection, along with a more detailed summary of the slave trade papers, is available upon request.