Washington & Jefferson: The Most Important Ship’s Passport We Have Ever Carried – President George Washington and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson Sign a Ship’s Passport for the Notorious Slave Ship the Schooner Two Friends

It was up to port Collectors to monitor shipping, so it is highly unlikely that either Washington or Jefferson had any idea what the unsavory business of the Two Friends actually was

 

Washington and Jefferson – an increasingly scarce combination of signatures, in fine condition and highly desirable

Although slavery had been abolished in Massachusetts by 1791, it was an open secret that merchants from that state continued to operate slave ships outside of the United States. Here was the procedure they used. Orders were often given to ship captains from the owners or the merchants selling cargo that had been placed aboard for sale in the Caribbean. They would direct the captain to go to certain ports to obtain the best prices for the goods he carried. The master would then be instructed to use the proceeds to take on a cargo of human chattel to sell in Cuba or elsewhere in the Caribbean and to state that he had bought the maximum number, even if he was actually unable to. The reason for the subterfuge was that the number of slaves to be traded dictated the amount of sugar and molasses that a ship could then buy and transport back to the home port of Beverly, Massachusetts. Even though the manifests dealing with cargo leaving and returning to the United States would not show any slave-trading activity, documentation exists that makes clear that Massachusetts ships carried enslaved people between ports in the Caribbean to increase their profits.

One such ship was the Schooner Two Friends, owned by the firm of Brown & Thorndike of Beverly. Ships orders have survived instructing the master, Captain Richard Thorndike, to “go first off Point Peter in Guadaloupe,” and if the cargo does nor bring the desired payment, “you’ll proceed to St. Pierre in Martinique, & if it can’t be sold there to Port Royal, & if the above Terms Cannot be had you proceed to Basseterre, in Guadaloupe, & if your Cargo cannot be sold at either of those places, you’ll proceed to St Batholomew, St Eustasis or St Thomas.” Failing all else, “Let your Cargo be sold wherever it may be…& purchase from Five to Fourteen good Negroes, as the price may be, & lay in such food for them as is best suited to preserve their Health & proceed to Havana in the island of Cuba. You’ll be Very Careful to keep them well Secured at all times, & on your arrival you’ll sell them for the most that can be Obtained & purchase as much Molasses as your Vessel will stow…” So while the ship brought back to the U.S. only sugar and molasses at the end of its journey, it transported and sold slaves through the Caribbean.

Proof that these orders to trade in slaves were acted upon comes from a deposition given by Two Friends’ Chief Mate Osman Gage in 1793 in a customs case involving illegal off-loading of sugar in Beverly. Osmon stated, “I did not know how Strict the Spanish would be, who would not allow any more cargo that what the Proceeds of the Slaves would produce…”

In 1794, the Schooner Two Friends was fitted out for its next voyage. Perhaps because of problems resulting from the customs case, Thorndike was replaced by Gage as Master, though just for a short time.

In the early days of the American republic, ships leaving U.S. ports for foreign shores were required to have passports, and both the President and Secretary of State frequently signed these documents. Between 1790-1793, passports signed by Washington as President were also signed by Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State. Having that combination of names – the two great lions of the Revolution – on one document has always been desirable, but nowadays such documents are increasingly in very short supply. And this is particularly true of ones in excellent condition with strong signatures.

Document Signed by President Washington and Secretary of State Jefferson, Philadelphia, March 20, 1794, being a ship’s passport in English, French and Dutch giving permission to “Osman Gage, master or commander of the Schooner called Two Friends…lying at present at the Port of Beverly and bound for Surinam and laden with fish, provisions, oil, and lumber, to depart and proceed with this said Schooner on his said voyage, such Schooner having been visited, and the said Osman Gage having made oath before the proper officer that the said Schooner belongs to one or more of the citizens of the United States of America, and to them only.” The document is also signed by Joseph Hiller, Collector for the Port of Salem.

It seems that there was a delay in departure, perhaps planned in advance, as on the verso is a note from two months later indicating that Thorndike was back in command, and that other details had changed. The verso states: “District of Salem & Beverly, Port of Salem, May 25, 1794. Nicholas Thorndike has become Master of the within named Schooner Two Friends, and has liberty to proceed to Trinidad with cargo consisting of fish, lard, soap, cheese, flour, oil, roots, provisions, shoes, books, candles, hoops & hooks.” It was again signed by Joseph Hiller as Collector. Thorndike remained captain of the Two Friends into the 19th century.

Since ship’s passports were signed by the President and Secretary of State in advance and distributed to the ports for the Collectors to fill out as needed, it is unlikely that either Washington or Jefferson had any idea what the unsavory business of the Two Friends actually was. But this document does shed light on the way American ports operated during the Washington administration, and on the details and operations of the open secret of the involvement of northern merchants in the slave trade.