WANDERER (SCHOONER).
Wanderer (Schooner) records, 1838-1859

Restrictions on Access

Due to the fragile nature of the originals, researchers are required to use the microfilm copy.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction.

Additional Physical Form

Entire collection also available on microfilm.

Source

Purchase, 1938.

Citation

[after identification of item(s)], Wanderer (Schooner) records, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University.

Processing

Processed by Elizabeth Russey, June 23, 2004.

Historical Note

The Wanderer was a schooner that, in 1858, pretending to be on other business, carried 487 slaves from Africa to the United States (against U.S. law), and delivered slaves to South Carolina and Georgia. Some slaves were sold off Jekyll Island, Georgia, where the Wanderer made a stop. The names of persons who conspired to import Africans to the United States were never legally established. The schooner, the largest built in the United States up to that time, was seized, condemned, and sold at auction to Charles A. L. Lamar, a suspect in the conspiracy.

Scope and Content Note

The collection consists of two ship manifests from 1838 and 1859 and a logbook of the Wanderer from 1858. Entries in the logbook begin on June 18, 1858 when the Wanderer , commanded by Captain William C. Corrie, departs from Long Island and heads for Charleston, South Carolina, arriving June 25, 1858. The daily log then chronicles subsequent stops in Trinidad on June 3, 1858, St. Helena on September 16, 1858, and the Congo River before abruptly ending on October 4, 1858 as the Wanderer was headed for Bengula[?]. Most entries are brief and simply record the weather, speed, and course of the yacht. There are a few details concerning other ships and visitors on the Wanderer scattered throughout the log. The author of the logbook is unknown, identified only by the initials W.V.B. The log does not make any mention of slaves or the cargo that was being transported by the Wanderer .

The ship manifests are probably from two different ships named the Wanderer . The manifest from 1858 records the cargo aboard the “Schooner Wanderer” before a voyage from Havana, Cuba to Savannah, Georgia in June of 1859. This ship was owned by Charles A. L. Lamar and is the same ship as the one for which the logbook was kept. The other manifest probably belonged to a different ship of the same name. It gives an account of the cargo for a voyage in December 1838 from Charleston, South Carolina to Savannah, Georgia, well before the Wanderer that journeyed from New York to Africa was built.