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Donald L. Canneys study is the first
book-length history of the U.S. Navy's Africa Squadron. Established
in 1842 to enforce the ban on importing slaves to the United
States, in twenty years' time the squadron proved ineffective. To
officers and enlisted men alike, duty in the squadron was
unpopular. The equatorial climate, departmental neglect, and
judicial indifference, which allowed slavers back at sea, all
contributed to the sailors' frustration. Later, the most damaging
allegation was that the squadron had failed at its mission. Canney
investigates how this unit earned a poor reputation and whether it
is deserved. Though U.S. warships seized slave vessels as early as
1800, four decades passed before the Navy established a permanent
squadron off the western coast of Africa to interdict U.S.-flag
vessels participating in this trade. Canney traces the Navy's role
in interdicting the slave trade, Great Britain's pressure on the
U.S. government to curb slave traffic, the creation of the
squadron, and how individual politicians, department secretaries,
captains, and squadron commanders interpreted the laws and orders
from higher authorities, changing squadron operations. While famous
ships and captains served on this station, none won distinction in
the Africa Squadron. In the final analysis, the squadron was
unsuccessful, even though it was the Navy's only permanent squadron
with a specific, congressionally mandated mission: to maintain a
quasi-blockade on a foreign shore. While Canney exonerates
southern-born naval captains, who approached their work as
diligently as their counterparts from the north, he demonstrates
how the secretaries of the Navy-pro-slavery southern
politicians-neglected the squadron. |
| Product Code |
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| ISBN: 9781574886061 |
Hardback - July 2006 |
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£21.00
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