The Mary Carver affair: United States foreign policy and the Africa squadron, 1841--1845

Diplomatic historians have ignored the U.S. Africa squadron, leaving the subject to slave trade historians. Consequently, the squadron has only been interpreted through the narrow lens of the slave trade, resulting in a distorted view of a failed squadron disconnected from foreign policy. This dissertation re-evaluates the squadron from a foreign policy perspective and concludes that it was not created to suppress the slave trade. Instead, it argues that the United States created the squadron in response to an escalating dispute with Britain over the future of international law.;Britain wanted the United States to concede the right of search to facilitate slave trade suppression, but the United States refused. Granting Britain the peacetime right of search would change international law, threatening free navigation of the seas. Americans argued that such a change would make slaves of us all. Britain increased pressure on the United States to concede by illegally searching more merchant vessels flying the American flag, provoking a serious diplomatic dispute. As this situation escalated, Americans dispatched naval cruisers to protect their merchant vessels from British interference. The dispute worsened to the point that the United States needed a permanent Africa squadron to protect Americans from ongoing British abuse.;The proposed squadron faced many political obstacles. Ultimately, the tragedy of the merchantman Mary Carver helped the Tyler administration secure the necessary support and funding. The Mary Carver had been trading along the coast of West Africa when natives murdered her crew and destroyed the schooner. The attack provided the administration with a new justification for the squadron. Squadron supporters created an exaggerated portrait of Africans as savage pirates who preyed on American shipping, arguing that the incident proved the need for a squadron.;Historians have mistakenly assumed that the United States created the squadron to suppress the slave trade and consequently judged it a failure. But the squadron was primarily created to protect Americans and their interests in West Africa; suppressing the slave trade was only a secondary concern. Considered in light of its total purpose and mission, the first U.S. Africa squadron was far from a failure.