More Black History and my ancestors

 Alexander G. Swasey, Jr. was born in Newport, RI. His father of the same name was a wood carver, creating many figures to hang on the prow of ships. He also created an eagle which survives to this day.

But let's look at Jr. because he is well known as a ship captain...for the Confederate Navy. He was already a ship captain before the Civil War broke out and he became a blockade runner...still trying to bring supplies into Charleston SC, where he had chosen to live. It's also where he died.

But he also lived in St. Augustine FL. There his wife lived with his children on several census reports, including A.G. as well.

I've written before about his involvement in the Confederate blockade running, and how he was captured early in the war by the Union Navy. See HERE. Here's a Union report in the NY times in Jan 1862 showing how he narrowly escaped capture in the Bahamas...

"On the morning of the 2d inst. the ocean steamer Ella Warley, Capt. SWASEY, ran the blockade at Charleston, from Nassau, N.P. She was chased and fired on by the blockading squadron, without harm to her. Her passengers were all English and Scotch, except B.T. BISBIE, late a bearer of Confederate dispatches to Europe. The Nassau authorities forced the Flambeau out of the harbor to coal, which gave the Ella Warley the chance to escape."

Very fuzzy photo of Alexander G. Swasey JR. in the book "Lifeline of the Confederacy, Blockade Running During the Civil War." by Steven R. Wine.

He is noted for having only begun being a blockade runner in January of 1862, and captured on April 25, 1862 on the Ella Warley...captured near Abaco, one of the islands of the Bahamas.

The nautical records regarding this capture, and what the freight (weapons) had been, can be seen HERE.

But let's look further at his involvement in the Slave Trade. The following statement was made by my cousin, John Rogers, when visiting Charleston SC.

"Here's some verbiage based on what the docent at the Charleston Slave Mart told me.  I can't verify that my memory is totally correct, or the historical veracity of what he said without researching it more.  But this is my best recollection - feel free to edit however you want:

 

Captain Alexander G. Swasey was a ship captain as well as a Confederate blockade runner during the Civil War.  Although he was based for a time in Charleston, South Carolina (and ultimately died there), the historical record shows he made trips between Charleston, New Orleans, and the Caribbean.  According to information provided by a docent at the Charleston Slave Mart Museum, this was a common triangle for slave runners.  Once the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves took effect in 1808 (the earliest date permitted by the United States Constitution), slave states continued to smuggle slaves by claiming that any slave brought from Africa who even set foot in the Caribbean was no longer considered "imported."  

Charleston and New Orleans were two of the most important slave ports at the time, so the triangle among those two cities and ports in the Caribbean would have been a common route for slave captains such as A.G. Swasey."

 

John Fitz Rogers

December 29, 2016

And there were several ships in which Captain A.G. Swasey did carry enslaved persons.

The Schooner Calluo was his ship sailing from Charleston SC to New Orleans...as shown by the following manifest. 

The only enslaved man on the manifest is Francis, a male age 30, height 5' 8", and I can't make out the shipper's name. A.G. Swasey signed that he was the captain, going to New Orleans, where Francis A. Foygurt (or something like that) received the enslaved man. Left Charleston on April 6, 1743, arrived New Orleans April 28, 1843.

Here is another manifest with 8 slaves described leaving Charleston SC. June 6, 18?3, arriving in New Orleans June 29, 1843.

A.G. Swasey signed that he was agent for Mr. Cotter of Charleston. His (or very similar) handwriting shows their names, genders, ages, heights and coloration. And I would guess he also wrote "Eight in all" and "Charleston 6th June 18?3," with a signature "AGSwasey" with quite a flourish.

The next handwriting is different, stating "Examined and found correct, (unclear words, maybe English Turn) signed Francis A. Foygurt (or something like that) then date June 29th 1943.

A schooner is not a very big ship. The trip took most of the month of June. And if it stopped in any Caribbean islands, that might have been why it took so long. We don't know those details.

The records on Ancestry seem to have disappeared, but back when I first wrote about Capt. Swasey's involvement with the slave trade, there was a ship's manifest from somewhere in Europe as well. It is no longer in my records. I thought perhaps my other relations had decided to "white wash" the family from some of these historic records...but apparently they also have lost these as well.

He spent the years after he was captured in a Union Prison in Boston Harbor. I don't know how he returned at the end of the war to Charleston, but he died in 1866 and was buried in an unmarked grave.

His son Alexander John Swasey was born in 1853, in Charleston SC.  I don't know when his mother died. He had older sisters. His mother, Anna J. Zylstra Swasey was a second generation Dutch American. She had some family in Charleston also, but I'm not sure what their relation to her was. Young A.J. grew up from his 9th birthday in the privations of the war. His father's death was when he was 12. The next record I've found shows him getting married at age 29 in Texas (probably Galveston as that was where his bride lived). He is listed in the Galveston city directories for 1884, 86, and 1889 (without any trade listed.) He had two daughters, one of whom was my grandmother on my father's side of the family. The family still lived in Galveston until my grandmother married in 1905. Then A.J. Swasey was listed in the Houston city directories until his death, working as a clerk and bookkeeper in oil companies. He died in 1913.

Captain Swasey was involved in the terrible trade of shipping enslaved people from one port to another. He then tried to break another law by bringing in needed materials and shipping out the Confederate's crops through the Union blockades to English owners of his ship, the Ella Warley. I can't say he is my most notorious ancestor, but he's at the top of the list of those that I know of.  Yet many of my ancestors also fought and lost in the Civil War, living in other southern states. (I will search for more stories about them soon.)