III 

110TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. RES. 540 

Recognizing the historical significance of the sloop-of-war USS Constellation 

as a reminder of the participation of the United States in the transatlantic slave trade and of the efforts of the United States to end 

the slave trade. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

APRIL 29, 2008 

Ms. MIKULSKI (for herself and Mr. CARDIN) submitted the following 

resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

RESOLUTION 

Recognizing the historical significance of the sloop-of-war 

USS Constellation as a reminder of the participation 

of the United States in the transatlantic slave trade 

and of the efforts of the United States to end the slave 

trade. 

Whereas, on September 17, 1787, the Constitution of the 

United States was adopted, and article I, section 9 declared that Congress could prohibit the importation of 

slaves into the United States in the year 1808; 

Whereas, in 1794, the United States Congress passed ‘‘An 

Act to prohibit the carrying on the Slave Trade from the 

United States to any foreign place or country’’, approved 

March 22, 1794 (1 Stat. 347), thus beginning the efforts 

of the United States to halt the slave trade; 


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•SRES 540 IS 

Whereas, on May 10, 1800, Congress enacted a law that outlawed all participation by people in the United States in 

the international trafficking of slaves and authorized the 

United States Navy to seize vessels flying the flag of the 

United States engaged in the slave trade; 

Whereas, on March 2, 1807, President Thomas Jefferson 

signed into law ‘‘An Act to prohibit the importation of 

slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the 

United States, from and after the first of January, in the 

year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eight’’ 

(2 Stat. 426); 

Whereas, on January 1, 1808, the prohibition on the importation of slaves into the United States took effect; 

Whereas, on March 3, 1819, Congress authorized the Navy 

to cruise the coast of Africa to suppress the slave trade, 

declaring that Africans on captured ships be placed under 

Federal jurisdiction and authorizing the President to appoint an agent in Africa to facilitate the return of captured Africans to the continent; 

Whereas, in 1819, the Royal Navy of Great Britain established the West Coast of Africa as a separate naval station and actively plied the waters in pursuit of slave 

ships, and Great Britain negotiated with many other 

countries to obtain the right to search vessels suspected 

of engaging in the slave trade; 

Whereas, on May 15, 1820, Congress declared the trading of 

slaves to be an act of piracy and that those convicted of 

trading slaves were subject to the death penalty; 

Whereas the Webster-Ashburton Treaty between Great Britain and the United States, signed August 9, 1842, provided that both countries would maintain separate naval 


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•SRES 540 IS 

squadrons on the coast of Africa to enforce their respective laws against the slave trade; 

Whereas, in 1843, the newly formed United States African 

Squadron sailed for Africa and remained in operation 

until the Civil War erupted in 1861; 

Whereas, in 1859, the USS Constellation, the last all-sail vessel designed and built by the United States Navy, sailed 

to West Africa as the flagship of the United States African Squadron, which consisted of 8 ships, including 4 

steam-powered vessels suitable for chasing down and capturing slave ships; 

Whereas, on December 21, 1859, the USS Constellation captured the brig Delicia after a 10-hour chase, and although the Delicia had no human cargo on board upon 

capture, the crew had been preparing the ship to take on 

slaves; 

Whereas, on the night of September 25, 1860, the USS Constellation spotted the barque Cora near the mouth of the 

Congo River and, after a dramatic moonlit chase, captured the slave ship with 705 Africans crammed into her 

permanent ‘‘slave deck’’; 

Whereas after capturing the Cora, a detachment of the Constellation’s crew sailed the surviving Africans to Monrovia, Liberia, a colony founded for the settlement of free 

African-Americans, which became the destination for all 

Africans freed on slave ships captured by the United 

States Navy; 

Whereas, on May 21, 1861, the USS Constellation captured 

the brig Triton, and although the Triton did not have Africans captured for slavery on board when intercepted by 


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•SRES 540 IS 

the Constellation, a search confirmed that the ship had 

been prepared to take on slaves; 

Whereas the Triton, registered in Charleston, South Carolina, 

was one of the first Union naval captures of the Civil 

War; 

Whereas, from 1859 to 1861, the USS Constellation and the 

United States African Squadron captured 14 slave ships 

and liberated nearly 4,000 Africans destined for a life of 

servitude in the Americas, a record unsurpassed by the 

squadron under previous commanders; and 

Whereas, on September 25, 2008, the USS Constellation Museum will hold a ceremony to commemorate the bicentennial of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade 

aboard the same ship that, 148 years before, forced the 

capitulation of the slave ship Cora and freed the 705 Africans confined within: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) recognizes the historical and educational 

3 significance of the USS Constellation, a 153-year-old 

4 warship berthed in Baltimore, Maryland, as a re5 minder of both the participation of the United 

6 States in the slave trade and the efforts of the 

7 United States Government to suppress the inhumane 

8 practice; 

9 (2) applauds the preservation of the historic 

10 vessel and the efforts of the USS Constellation Mu11 seum to engage people from all over the world with 

12 this vital part of our history; and 


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1 (3) supports the USS Constellation as an ap2 propriate site for the Nation to commemorate the bi3 centennial of the abolition of the transatlantic slave 

4 trade in 2008. 

Æ 


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