# The American Slave Trade (Spears)/Chapter 11

Contents
CHAPTER XI
TALES OF THE EARLIER SMUGGLERS
A Slaver's Ferry Between Havana and the Florida Ports — Amelia Island as a Smugglers' Headquarters — The Barataria Pirates and the Smuggling Trade — Extent of the Illegal Traffic — A Georgia Governor who Left His Post to Become a Slave Smuggler.
Nothing like a complete story of the smuggling traffic in slaves carried on along the coasts of the United States has ever been told, and none can be told, because of conditions that were very well stated by Congressman Lowndes, of South Carolina, in the House on February 14, 1804. “With navigable rivers running into the heart of it [his State], it was impossible, with our means, to prevent our Eastern brethren, who in some parts of the Union, in defiance of the authority of the general Government, have been engaged in this trade, from introducing them into the country. The law was completely evaded, and for the last year or two Africans were introduced into the country in numbers little short, I believe, of what they would have been had the trade been a legal one."
The fling at New England ship-owners was entirely justified by the facts, but it will also be observed that citizens of South Carolina were the receivers of the goods stolen by the New England thieves.
​Another popular Florida port was Pensacola. There was a regular slave-ferry between Havana and Pensacola in the days when Florida was Spanish territory. When General Jackson seized Pensacola in the spring of 1818, Colonel Brooke captured the slaver Constitution with eighty-four negroes on board, while Lieutenant McKeever, of the naval forces, captured the Louisa and the Marino with twenty-three slaves between them. All these slaves were destined to the United States for a market. Considering the fact that three slavers were found in or near the port at one time, it is fair to suppose that at least one slaver a week was the average of arrivals.
Congressman Mitchell estimated that 20,000 were smuggled in each year. In 1810 President Madison referred to the traffic and said he believed that "just and benevolent motives" would "be felt by Congress in devising further means of suppressing the evil."
On January 22, 1811, Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton wrote to Captain H. G, Campbell, the commanding naval officer at Charleston, S. C., saying: "I hear, not without great concern, that the law prohibiting the importation of slaves has been violated in frequent instances at St. Mary's (Ga.), since the gunboats have been withdrawn from that station. Hasten the equipment of the gunboats. . . and despatch them to St. Mary's with orders to use all practicable diligence."
The extent of the traffic here mentioned may be imagined from what is said by the author of the "Voyage of the Ship Two Friends," who was in a position to learn some of the facts before he wrote his book. ​"During the existence of the impolitic intercourse act . . . so great was the trade [of all kinds] that three hundred sail of square-rigged vessels were seen at one time in the Spanish waters waiting for cargoes." Amelia Island was then probably the most populous slave-station in the world.
Another notable slave-station on the borders of the United States previous to the war of 1812 was that established at Barataria, southwest of New Orleans, where Jean Lafitte ruled. Lafitte's piratical cruisers captured many slavers and brought their cargoes to Barataria. The bayous between that and the Mississippi were admirably suited for smugglers. They smuggled all kinds of goods, but negroes paid best of all. The operations became so bold that the national Government sent Commodore D. T. Patterson, of the navy, and Colonel George T. Ross, of the army, with forces that destroyed the settlement. The vessels and other property captured sold for $50,000, and this sam was distributed among our men who had part in the expedition. That so great a sum was realized at forced sale for the property shows how extensive the Barataria smuggling business was.
After the war of 1812 the people chiefly concerned in the Barataria colony went to Galveston Island and there established what they called the Government of the new State of Texas. This was done in 1817 but the exact date is not recorded. The ruling spirit was "Commodore Louis Aury," who had held a commission in the New Grenada navy, but was in 1817 acting under a commission issued by Herrero, an agent of the Mexican republic. Aury called himself the Commodore of the allied fleet in the war with Spain. ​He set up a court of admiralty, and before this court he brought and condemned such vessels as his "allied fleet" could capture. To dispose of the property thus obtained he adopted the smuggling tactics of the Baratarians, and he found plenty of men in New Orleans ready to assist him.
On April 5, 1817, Aury removed his establishment down to Matagorda, and thence to Amelia Island, Fla., where the smuggling operations became so bold and extensive as to attract the attention of the whole nation.
In fact the business became so profitable that Governor David B. Mitchell, of Georgia, resigned his honorable office and became the United States agent of the Creek Indians in order that he might, as he supposed, safely participate in the smuggling traffic. The Creek agency was in the midst of the wilderness then lying between the Georgia settlements and the new plantations of the Louisiana purchase. Mitchell had the slaves taken by obscure trails to his headquarters at the agency, and he intended to distribute them thence to the Louisiana plantations. He supposed that the routes to be followed, the location of the agency, and his personal influence combined would enable him to do a wholesale smuggling business in perfect safety. But he was detected, and lost money as well as his honor. The facts in this matter can be found in the "American State Papers" — Miscellaneous — Vol. II., p. 957. It seems necessary to give the authority for this story lest it seem wholly incredible.
The documents in this case (p. 962) show that "prime fellows were offered at Amelia at $250; ordinary from $175 to $200." Therefore the net profit in smuggling ​slaves into the United States varied between $350 and $500 per head.
Details of the smugglers' methods are to be had in sufficient number, but the story of one trip described by Drake may suffice for all.
"The kaffle, under charge of negro drivers, was to strike up the Escambia River, and thence cross the boundary into Georgia, where some of our wild Africans were mixed with various squads of native blacks and driven inland till sold off, singly or by couples, on the road. . . . The Spanish possessions were thriving on this inland exchange of negroes. . .Florida was a sort of nursery for slave-breeders, and many American citizens grew rich by trafficking in Guinea negroes and smuggling them continually, in small parties, through the Southern United States. At the time I mention, the business was a lively one."