Just finished reading a book on the US Navy's "efforts" to stop the African slave trade. Fascinating tidbits of history, laced with tons of politics!
Basically, officially, the US had a squadron of navy ships assigned to stop "slavers" the term for slave ships. But, from 1819 to 1858 it was a lame effort, a token show that "look! we are doing something to stop slavery." A joke. Big time businessmen, mostly big bankers, financed the slavers. The most famous (infamous) of which was the Wanderer. A very, very, fast schooner that could out-run any navy ship, including the navy's sloops and Britain's fastest ships too. A New York coalition of bankers financed the Wanderer via a Savannah businessman who served as their front guy. The Wanderer could stuff 405 slaves into its smallish cargo holes and make the roundtrip to Africa monthly, provided the other logistics could keep up. At today's dollars, that was $9 million worth of slaves. It was never caught.
The other two most notorious slavers were the Cora and the Martha. Although they were not that much more "successful" in the slave trade than other slavers they came to be known as the prized catch for the navies chasing after them. The Martha was stopped in 1850 by the USS Perry. The Brits were both congratulatory and envious. The British Naval Command sent a letter to its captains "don't let the Americans get the Cora too." No one got the Cora.
From 1819 through the 1840's the US Navy did not make any real effort to interdict the slave trade. In fact! it aided the slave trade! Not directly, but by providing escorts to any merchant vessels flying the American flag. This stemmed from the US's disdain for the British stopping US ships and taking US merchant sailors at gun point and forcing them to serve in the Royal Navy. That was a big reason we declared war on Britain, the War of 1812. The hard feelings lingered into the 1840's. So, we dared a British ship to stop a US merchant vessel. The slave traders recognized the opportunity and started flying the American flag, even seeking out a US Navy ship to escort them across the Atlantic. But, by the early 1850's this practiced stopped and the US Navy ships were ordered to board and inspect any ship asking for an escort.
Still, the US made only a token effort at stopping the slave trade. There was too much money to be made by bankers, investors, ship-owners (ships were leased to slave traders), and by good ole politicians, north and South. Mostly, the US assigned just 4 ships, three of them frigates, which packed a lot of firepower, but which were too slow to catch the slavers. Only the USS Constellation, a sloop, was effective in catching slavers. Then in 1858, under a lot of political pressure from the "evil" Republicans, President Buchanan finally took action and established The African Squadron. In one year the US Navy captured 14 slavers and returned 3,032 Africans to their homeland.
By the 1850's there was a lot of conflicting political pressure being employed in the US. Some Southerners, big slave traders, wanted the international slave trade stopped, thus making their slaves more valuable to other planters. But, northern interests, as I mentioned, worked from the other side because of the money that could be made. By the 1850's ALL of the African slaves were taken either to Cuba or Brazil. Then some of them, especially from Cuba, were smuggled into the US.
James DeWolfe is one example of a northern "prominent" businessman who financed the slave trade and got rich. He supported politicians who would help protect the trade, and him. Another prominent family that got its wealth from the slave trades were the Browns of Rhode Island. Yes...Brown University is named for the patriarch of this family who donated money to have the school established. It was the Rhode Island Institute at that time, later renamed in his honor. Hmmmm....wonder if the lefties will demand Brown U. change its name.
Follow the money trail...