PBA Galleries

Two US Congress publications symbolizing a change in US Government policy after the legal furor over the Amistad slave revolt focused public attention on the illegal maritime slave trade. The 1837 report records the diplomatic brouhaha over an “outrage” committed by British authorities who freed the slaves found aboard two shipwrecked US vessels that were forced to enter Bermuda ports. After the Amistad slaves were also set free by a US Supreme Court decision, England and the US signed an 1842 treaty providing for joint Anglo-American squadrons to suppress the slave trade along the African coast. The second report discusses details of creating the first US “Africa Squadron” - later to be commanded by Naval hero (and fervent Abolitionist) Andrew Hull Foote.