Dark Places of the Earth by Jonathan M. Bryant

Author:Jonathan M. Bryant
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Liveright
Published: 2015-10-06T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

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“The Consuls of Spain and Portugal, respectively, demand these Africans as slaves, who have, in the regular course of legitimate commerce, been acquired as property . . .”

Chief Justice John Marshall The Antelope, 23 U.S. 66, 114 (1825)

At the May term of circuit court in 1822, Supreme Court Justice William Johnson asked the clerk of court to review Marshal Morel’s bill of $21,556.69 for the care and maintenance of the captives. The clerk rejected $1,269.71 of the charges, giving a final bill due the marshal of $20,286.98. Justice Johnson signed off on this amount, and by July 17, 1822, the United States Navy had paid the marshal in full from the $100,000 that had been appropriated to support the 1819 Slave Trade Act. Then, after the October 1822 cabinet meeting discussing Eleazar Early’s corruption and violence allegations against Morel, either President James Monroe or Secretary of State Adams ordered U.S. Attorney Richard W. Habersham to investigate. The only clear record of this investigation shows that in December 1823, the U.S. Navy paid Richard W. Habersham $431.75 as “Compensation and expenses in the investigation made into the conduct of J. H. Morel . . . in relation to the negroes of the cargo of the General Ramirez.” Habersham, of course, was investigating his neighbor who lived across the street and a man he worked with closely in most federal legal matters. Whatever the actual findings of Habersham’s report, it resulted in quick action by the administration, something unusual in the Antelope case.1

The president must have given the results of the investigation to Secretary of the Navy Smith Thompson and to Supreme Court Justice William Johnson in late February or early March of 1823. Despite the busy Supreme Court term, on March 10, 1823, Justice William Johnson found time to terminate Marshal Morel’s control of the captives. Morel was ordered to bring them into Savannah. There, the district court would bond them out in the usual way, as had been done before the Antelope case. In order to be sure these bonds did not turn into purchases, Johnson set a very high requirement of $800 for adults over the age of fifteen and $500 for children. In Savannah the captives were gathered and bound out to twenty-seven different men. These men all swore to “well and truly maintain the said African Negroes,” and to give them “proper and adequate clothing, provisions, and Medical attendance.” To keep track of the captives, the court drew up a marvelous document with the “Names of Africans cargo of the Brig Ramiriz [sic] collected together and delivered to sundry persons whoes [sic] names are here with stated.” There followed the name, sex, and sometimes the age of each of the 180 captives still living in Savannah on March 24, 1822, and the name of the person or company bonding each person.2

Most captives’ names were short and simple, like those used for pets and slaves. These names stripped the bearers of their former identity. Jack, Tom, Jim, Bob, and Ned were among the most commonly used male names.

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