“Audentes Fortuna Iuvat” - “Fortune Favors the Bold” - Latin proverb
This is the ninth in a series about Commodore Robert Field Stockon, the naval hero, US Senator and founder of Sea Girt.
In this episode, Robert takes a stand against the slave trade.
Before heading home in 1820, Robert F. Stockton gained his first command. His captain and several other commanders of the squadron were sidelined by Commodore Charles Stewart pending court-martials. The young lieutenant was put in charge of the Erie for the return voyage from the Mediterranean to NY. He came home to Morven after almost ten years at sea in January 1820.
Arriving at Princeton, he learned that his older brother Richard had quarreled with his father. A brilliant attorney, but a hot head, Richard moved to Mississippi where he excelled, just as he had at Princeton, telling the Duke in an outburst that he would not be back except to claim his inheritance.
Robert wanted to return to the sea. Once he tasted control of a vessel, he wanted his own command.
His biographer, cousin Samuel Bayard noted he went to Washington on official business in early 1820. It is possible he participated in the funeral procession of his former captain Stephen Decatur who had been killed in a duel in March 1820. 10,000 people attended Decatur’s funeral.
While in Washington, attorney Francis Scott Key, and George Washington’s nephew, Supreme Court Justice Bushrod Washington approached him. They were members of the American Colonialization Society (ACS) and they thought Stockton was ideal to command a vessel to establish a colony in Africa to allow freed slaves to emigrate.. They knew Robert had a connection to the group’s founder.
His boyhood tutor was a young Presbyterian minister, Robert Finley, whose father was friendly with President Witherspoon of Princeton. Finley prepared Robert for Princeton and Robert joined Finley when he started the Basking Ridge Classical School. (Robert was sent home at one point for brawling), Finley and a group of other Princeton men founded the ACS, along the lines of the Philadelphia Abolition Society founded by Benjamin Rush and Benjamin Franklin. Finley died in 1817 as President of the University of Georgia.
In 1807 and 1808 Britain and the USA respectively abolished legal slave trading. When the War of 1812 ended, both sides agreed to promote abolition. The bulk of the trade moved to Brazil and Latin America. Article 10 of the 1814 Treaty of Ghent stated:
“Traffic in Slaves is irreconcilable with the principles of humanity and justice, and whereas both His Majesty and the United States are desirous of continuing their efforts to promote its entire abolition, it is hereby agreed that both the contracting parties shall use their best endeavours to accomplish so desirable an object.”
It took five more years for Congress to act and fund a serious effort for the Navy to enforce the treaty.
When the Stockton family settled in the Princeton area in the late 1600’s slaves worked its 5,000 acres. John Stockton willed his slaves to his sons along with the land, and they to their sons. Richard the Signer owned several slaves and he willed Robert’s grandmother, Annis the right to free them. Many emulated George Washington, who had freed his slaves in his will. When Judge Bushrod Washington moved into Mount Vernon, he brought his own slaves with him.
The Northern states, beginning with Pennsylvania in 1790 set the standard of gradual emancipation. America respected the rights of property owners, and slaves were considered property. This complicated every attempt to normalize abolition. For example, crimes committed by slaves could not be punished by prison as owners would decry the loss of labor, so corporal punishment was preferred. Freed slaves could not own property, and could be a burden on society. States charged high fees for manumission.
New Jersey in 1807 ended the importation of slaves, but to appease the slaveowners in eastern counties like Monmouth and Bergen, existing slaves would live out their lives and their children would be slaves until they were in their 20s.
The 20,000 free African Americans were also problematic. They did not enjoy equal protection under the law, and a colony in Africa seemed like an ideal solution for the ACS, especially after French Haiti had exploded into a racial massacre in 1804.
The South’s economy was tied to slavery. They would increase their slave holdings with the industrialization of the cotton and sugar businesses. They sourced slaves with purchases from northern states. The Spanish and Portuguese also filled demand in the south through their Caribbean and South American operations. American smugglers were a third source.
Robert’s attitudes reflected the seemingly conflicted nation. He lobbied hard for a new sloop built for the Navy at Boston, the sloop Alligator. Bold and persistent with the Secretary, he was given the ship in front of several more senior Lieutenants.
He would carry out the orders to patrol for slave ships, and he would work to secure land for the ACS.
Robert was going to prove a point as commander. As he was leaving the harbor, he ceremoniously tossed the cat-and-nine tails overboard. He would rule without flogging. He had made the argument that the punishment was inhumane and sailors at times were treated as slaves.
In 1821-22 the Alligator captured two slave ships, one French and one Portugese. He reported to the Secretary of the Navy:
“I have great satisfaction in the reflection that I have procrastinated the slavery of some 800 Africans, and have broken off this horrible traffic to the northward of Cape Palmas for at least this season.”
Taking French ships was not explicitly in his orders, yet the French had banned the trade. Privateers often struck flags of other nations to avoid American involvement. He escaped punishment for the international diplomatic difficulty his actions caused. Colonization Society member Daniel Webster successfully appealed to the Supreme Court on Robert's behalf that the taking of the slavers was not prohibited by his orders and he had the higher moral standing. He avoided discipline from the Navy this time.
Liberia 1825 (public domain)
The Colonization Society had tried and failed to purchase the land now known as Liberia for a colony. The Zulu on the coast were the most powerful around and made their living selling weaker tribes into slavery and showed no interest in negotiations. Many of the Europeans who visited also contracted yellow fever.
Stockton, unmoved by the earlier failures or the dangers, went ashore. The locals first thought he was interested in buying slaves. When he didn’t, they were convinced he was there to put them out of business. They then negotiated but in bad faith. As soon as Stockton made payment, they “forgot” the deal that the King of Cape Montserrado had just made and they all just disappeared into the bush with his “gift” of tobacco and rum.
Robert simply marched twenty miles, deep into the jungle, and into the king’s stronghold, surrounded by 500 enemies who were ready to kill him. He discussed the treaty with the man who was negotiating on behalf of the king who appeared aloof.
Reportedly he took two pistols out of his belt, pointed one at King Peter’s head and re-negotiated with his now very compliant adversary. He explained himself in the booming voice he had developed in the noise of the high seas. He did not want to exploit their land, as Europeans had done. He wanted a treaty for the Africans of his nation to live freely. 140 miles of the African coast were made available to settlers. By 1847 Liberia was an independent nation with thousands of resettled former slaves.
1852 Thomas Clarke Illustration of the confrontation in the jungle (public domain)
Modeling his hero Lord Nelson, Stockton regularly used the holes in his orders to great effect early in his career. The third voyage of the Alligator in 1821 would send him home.
Stockton aggressively hunted privateers, this time in the Caribbean. After burning an apparent pirate ship with a Spanish letter of Marque and angering the governor in Havana, he needed defending again. His excuse of a higher purpose fell flat with new Commodore Biddle, who sent the Captain home to Princeton to await orders. Labeled a ‘problem child’, at 27, he had no command, he was the second son with no real way to make money.
Drawn from the Sketch of RF Stockton by Samuel Bayard 1854, Morven Museum and Craig Hollander for Princeton University. The institutions touched by slavery have dedicated significant resources to re-examining their historical roles.
https://www.morven.org/robert-field-stockton-and-the-american-colonization-society
https://slavery.princeton.edu/stories/navigating-slavery