Walker, Theodore L., fl. 1857 Copy of certificates of Lieuts. Walker & Cummings, regarding the casks left by the "W.G. Lewis"
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC00722.22 Author/Creator: Walker, Theodore L., fl. 1857 Place Written: s.l. Type: Manuscript document Date: 12 November 1857 Pagination: 1 p. : docket ; 33 x 20 cm. Order a Copy
Copy of Walker's statement certifying that he saw about ten large casks which Captain Fredell said belonged to him "but that he did not want them." Fredell was the captain of the barque "William G. Lewis," a suspected slave ship captured by the U.S.S. "Dale." Attested to by A. B. Cummings and William McBlair (all three are clerical signatures). Title from docket. Written on board the U.S.S. "Dale," off the Congo River.
Lt. Walker was in charge of the launch sent out to board the "William G. Lewis." Among the factors that led both Walker and McBlair to believe that the vessel was preparing to pick up slaves were irregular paperwork, a passenger who appeared likely to be the cargo (slave) owner, and the presence of far more casks than cited in the manifest. Those casks could have been used to support a false deck, built to hide the cargo of slaves on the return voyage. McBlair put Lt. Joel S. Kennard in command of the prize and ordered him to sail back to Norfolk, Virginia. Kennard arrived in late December of 1857, and a court convened to determine whether the ship and her cargo were contraband. (The captain and her crew were not included in the indictment.) The owners, however, put up a spirited defense and, in the summer of 1859, the judge decided that though McBlair had reasonable cause to seize the "William G. Lewis," the slave trading charges had not been proven. Ironically, while the court proceedings were underway, McBlair got word that the "passenger" had been able to transport his cargo of slaves on another vessel.
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