Caleb Gardner

In 1762, at 23 years of age, Caleb Gardner was the Captain of the Newport sloop Rebecca and Joseph. As he made his way along the African coast, Gardner purchased enslaved captives at the Windward (Ivory) and Gold coasts and Benin. He purchased more captives at the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana. He departed from Cape Coast Castle on Aug. 10, 1762 with 70 enslaved captives on board. When the sloop arrived at New York, 58 captives disembarked. Twelve Africans died during the voyage. [1]

In 1762, he was spotted in Amobanu with 150 slaves on board by John Harwood, who had been on the schooner Success and had just returned from the Coast of Africa.[2] Apparently, this is the same voyage as the "Captain Gardner" who purchased slaves in Africa, disembarked with 149 on board, and arrived with 126 captives in 1763.[3]

In 1764, he completed four slave trade voyages as Captain of the following vessels:

• Triton or Tryton from Boston to Gambia, 118 captives embarked; 103 disembarked.[4]
• Elizabeth from Newport to Cape Coast Castle, 120 disembarked; 89 disembarked at Rhode Island.[5]
• Black Prince departing from Africa with 186 captives on board, and 145 that disembarked at Charleston.[6]
• George departing from Liverpool, destination unknown. This voyage was unsuccessful. Two hundred captives were intended to be purchased. This 100-ton brig was shipwrecked or destroyed before the enslaved embarked.[7]

By 1765, Gardner was not only Captain but also owner of the vessel Triton (or Tryton), which made two voyages. From an unspecified African port, 148 captives embarked and 131 disembarked at Jamaica; 100 captives embarked at Cape Coast Castle and 87 disembarked at St. Kitts.[8]

In 1766, as Captain of the Surprize [sic], he made a triangle trade voyage to Liverpool, then Bonny, where enslaved captives were purchased. He departed with 339 captives when he navigated to the West Indies. He made stops at St. Kitts and Barbados, where a total of 290 captives disembarked, then returned to Liverpool.[9]

In 1767, Gardner appears to have been the Captain of the Peggy which stopped at the Cape Coast Castle, then proceeded to Grenada. The total number of captives and those who survived the journey are unknown.[10]

From 1767 through 1774, Gardner traded slaves on at least five voyages as owner of the Rhode Island ship Black Prince, with three of those voyages as its Captain. Captives were taken from Africa (Gold coast ad Cape Coast Castle) to Barbados, and in one case from Anomabu to Dominica. On these voyages, a total of 774 captives embarked on the ship and 630 disembarked. A total of 118 captives died on these voyages.[11]

Gardner temporarily ceased his prolific triangle trade activities just before the Revolutionary War. In late 1775, he raised a company of militiamen. He was assigned with this company to Colonel William Richmond's Regiment. He became major and was promoted to lieutenant colonel on Aug. 19, 1776.[12] He became member of the council of war and of the Rhode Island state government.

He resided in Newport in 1778, when the French squadron under Count d'Estaing was blockaded there by the greatly superior British fleet under Admiral Howe. A sudden and dense fog prevented an immediate attack by the English, but they occupied both entrances to the harbor and waited for daylight.

Looking through a spyglass from his housetop, Captain Gardner noted the disposition of the hostile fleets. As soon as it was dark, he rowed himself to the ship of the French admiral and offered to pilot him to a safe position. He steered the admiral's ship through a channel that he had known from boyhood. The other vessels, with all lights extinguished, followed singly in his wake. After piloting the French beyond the enemy and to clear water, he returned to the island. He reached his own house before daylight. When the fog lifted, he was among the groups along the waterfront who marveled at the disappearance of the French fleet.

Count d'Estaing's report of the affair to Louis XVI was confidential, since its disclosure would have exposed Gardner to the dangerous displeasure of the English government and of the Tory element in Rhode Island. However, through his ambassador in the United States, the Chevalier de la Luzerne, the King sent a substantial sum of money to Gardner. With it, he bought an estate near Newport and built a house upon it, which later became known as "Bateman's."

Throughout the war, Colonel Gardner was said to be a trusted adviser of the French officers in Rhode Island and of enslaver General George Washington, who was his friend and correspondent. After peace was declared, Gardner was made French consul at Newport. He became president of a bank, warden of Trinity Church, and head of the volunteer fire department of the town.

Caleb Gardner and Peleg Clarke, who also was a well known slaving captain before the war, served as members of the Rhode Island assembly, one in the upper, the other in the lower house.[13]

Newport slavers were men in an elite class of oligarchs who became very wealthy, very fast by trafficking in humans. Slavery oligarchs were a minority who controlled the economy in such a way that it best served the wealthy (themselves). They also controlled the majority of schools and universities, churches, mainstream newspapers, and public affairs in a way that guaranteed their personal power and wealth.

Before the Revolutionwary War, Rhode Island was a dominant player in the global slave trade. "An Ethiopian could as soon change his skin as a Newport merchant could be induced to change so lucrative a trade as that in slaves for the slow profits of any manufactory." (William Ellery, 1791.)

By 1785, Caleb Gardner, Captain and owner of more than a dozen slave trade vessels, was again trafficking in enslaved human beings at ports around the world -- as if the war had never happened.

By 1785, Gardner had resumed his profiteering in the triangle trade. He owned multiple vessels that were built to sell rum and other goods to buy enslaved captives, transport the captives under brutal and inhumane conditions, then deliver those who survived the journey to their enslavers at the port of destination.

In 1785 and 1786, Gardner was the owner of the Newport, Rhode Island vessel Washington which made two voyages to Africa and the Americas, with a total of 110 captives who embarked and a total of 90 who disembarked. William Gardner was the Captain on both voyages.[14]

In 1789, The Pennsylvania Herald and New York General Advertiser published a notice for debt collection by William Gordon, Esq. of Bedford, against Caleb Gardner and Nathaniel Briggs, co-owners of the brigantine Hope, and its Captain John Stanton. The Hope had recently returned to Rhode Island after taking a cargo of African captives to the West Indies.[15]

In 1790, Gardner and Nathaniel Briggs were co-owners of the Dove. The Captain of was Joseph Gardner. The Dove departed from a port in Rhode Island loaded with goods and arrived at an unspecified port in Africa. Departing from Africa were 97 captives. Six captives died on the journey; 91 embarked at Havana in March, 1791.[16]

Gardner died in Newport, Rhode Island on December 24, 1806.

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1891). Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)