Echo was a sail-powered ship launched at Baltimore, Maryland and registered at New Orleans.[1] On 8 February 1858, she sailed to Loango where she embarked 450–455 captives. USS Dolphin captured her on 21 August at a small island off Cuba and took her into Charleston, South Carolina where she was condemned and her captain and crew tried for piracy.[1] On the Middle Passage between Africa and Cuba 141 captives died; she arrived at Charleston with 306.[1] According to Frederic Bancroft in Slave Trading in the Old South, the crew was acquitted by a Charleston jury on charges of violating the law prohibiting the importation of slaves.[2]
United States law required the return of the Africans to Monrovia, Liberia. USS Niagara carried 271 surviving captives to Liberia where 200 arrived.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Database – Echo voyage #4248.
- ^ Bancroft, Frederic (2023) [1931]. Slave Trading in the Old South. Southern Classics Series. Introduction by Michael Tadman. University of South Carolina Press. p. 196. ISBN 978-1-64336-427-8.
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