For the earlier Royal Navy anti-slavery squadron, see West Africa Squadron.
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Africa Squadron
A photograph of the sloop-of-war USS Jamestown (date unknown). She captured two slave ships with the Africa Squadron.
Active
1819–1861
Country
United States of America
Branch
United States Navy
Type
Naval squadron
Role
African Slave Trade Patrol
Military unit
The Africa Squadron was a unit of the United States Navy that operated from 1819 to 1861 in the Blockade of Africa to suppress the slave trade along the coast of West Africa. However, the term was often ascribed generally to anti-slavery operations during the period leading up to the American Civil War.
The squadron was an outgrowth of the 1819 treaty between the United States and the United Kingdom that was an early step in stopping the trade, and further defined by the Webster–Ashburton Treaty of 1842. Although technically coordinated with a British West Africa Squadron based in Sierra Leone, in practice the American contingent worked on its own.
Matthew Perry was the first commander of the squadron, and based himself in Portuguese Cape Verde.
The squadron was generally ineffective, since the ships were too few, and since much of the trading activity had shifted to the Niger River delta area (present-day Nigeria), which was not being covered. In the two years of Perry's leadership, only one slaver was reported to have been captured, and that ship was later acquitted by a New Orleans court. In the 16 years of squadron operation, only the crews of 19 slave ships went to trial. These slavers were acquitted or only lightly fined. Other commanders, however, were more successful.
The AfricaSquadron was a unit of the United States Navy that operated from 1819 to 1861 in the Blockade of Africa to suppress the slave trade along the...
The West AfricaSquadron, also known as the Preventative Squadron, was a squadron of the British Royal Navy whose goal was to suppress the Atlantic slave...
Royal Navy immediately established a presence off Africa to enforce the ban, called the West AfricaSquadron. Although the ban initially applied only to British...
in the United States, a squadron of U.S. Navy warships and Cutters were assigned to catch slave traders in and around Africa. In 42 years about 100 suspected...
presence off the West African coast, obliged African states to adopt new economies. Between 1808 and 1860, the British West AfricaSquadron seized approximately...
Creoles of recaptive Yoruba ancestry liberated by the British West AfricaSquadron from the Atlantic Slave Trade, and whose origins were in Abeokuta and...
1 Squadron SAAF was an air force squadron of the South African Air Force and was formed at Air Force Station Swartkop in February 1920, equipped with De...
the flagship of the East Asia Squadron from 1881 to 1885. In early 1885, she was transferred to the East AfricaSquadron, where she also served as the...
locations, including on a colonial gunboat in German West Africa in the 1880s, the East AfricaSquadron in the late 1890s, and as commander of several warships...
SMS Gneisenau, SMS Ariadne, SMS Olga and the steam tender Adler. The squadron departed for West Africa on October 30. On reaching the Cape Verde Islands, it dispatched...
scrapping. She continued to serve as flagship in the Mediterranean and Africansquadrons, and she circled the world in the 1840s. During the American Civil...
In 1849, an expedition of the Royal Navy's slavery-fighting West AfricaSquadron attacked Lomboko: the Royal Marines freed the slaves and then destroyed...
of the 20-gun sloop-of-war Cyane of the AfricaSquadron on anti-slavery operations off the west coast of Africa. His officers included Matthew C. Perry...
onboard slave ships and rescued by anti-slavery patrols from the West AfricaSquadron of the Royal Navy. After the British Parliament passed the Slave Trade...
Commander-in-Chief, West AfricaSquadron, Commander-in-Chief of the Flying Squadron and then Commander-in-Chief, Channel Squadron. After that he became Commander-in-Chief...
was freed from slavery at a coastal port by the Royal Navy's West AfricaSquadron, which was enforcing the British ban against the Atlantic slave trade...
2 Squadron is a squadron in the South African Air Force which was formed in 1940. The squadron has a long history, having been involved in every single...
West AfricaSquadron. Promoted to captain in 1897; he was present during the Boxer Rebellion as commander of a cruiser in the East Asia Squadron. He served...
1808 and 1860, the Royal Navy’s West AfricaSquadron seized approximately 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans who were aboard. Britain used its...
Global Information
United States of America
United States Navy