Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1120839 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-22
• Released on: 2006-08-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The slave trade became illegal in the U.S. in 1808, but for half a century after that, a black market in chattel slavery thrived. In his first book, former Newsweek correspondent Calonius tells the fascinating, heartbreaking story of the last slave ship to dock on these shores, in 1858, the Wanderer. Originally built as a sugar baron's racing yacht, it was outfitted, as the New York Times reported, for "comfort and luxury." But a trio of greedy proslavery radicals, known as "fire-eaters," transformed her from plaything to slaver: deck planks and inner framing were removed and iron tanks inserted. Then the ship headed to Africa, and eventually returned to Georgia's Jekyll Island with its human cargo. (En route, 80 Africans died.) Calonius charts the subsequent media outcry and trials, and follows the Wanderer's history through the Civil War, when, in a delectably just turn of events, the U.S. government seized the ship and turned it into a Union gunboat. This is fast-paced narrative history, and Calonius has a terrific eye for atmospheric details. Still, one wishes he had provided more analysis of the larger themes in Southern, American and Atlantic history that this tragic episode illumines. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School—Calonius tells with gripping detail the history of the black-market slave trade that persisted after the United States made the business illegal in 1808. The author focuses on the Wanderer, a speedy pleasure yacht owned by a sugar tycoon. In 1858, a trio of pro-slavery radicals calling themselves "the fire-eaters" transformed it into a smuggling boat and used the vessel to carry 400 captured slaves from Africa to the sales block at Jekyll Island, GA. The federal government captured the fire-eaters, uncovering a plot led by New York businessmen and Southern operatives not only to continue the slave trade, but also to split apart the country. The book follows the outcry from Northern media sources like the New York Times, the dramatic court trial, and the ironic ending when the federal government transformed the Wanderer into a gunboat for the Union during the Civil War. Photos of the key players and plans of the ship are included. Written in a fast-paced style more reminiscent of thrillers than history books, the highly accessible text digs deep into the motivations for the Civil War and illuminates some of the darkest corners of our nation's past.—Matthew L. Moffett, Pohick Regional Library, Burke, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Former Wall Street Journal reporter Calonius chronicles the illegal enterprise of slave trading, 38 years after it was outlawed, onboard a former luxury yacht, the Wanderer. Calonius illustrates the pre-Civil War climate of regional tension between the North and the South on the issue of slavery. Despite the tension, there was a substantial Northern element of slave traders centered in New York in 1858, when the temptations of the globalized economy prompted Southern gentlemen owners of a yacht anchored at the New York Yacht Club to sail down the coast to Savannah off to the Caribbean, where they secured provisions for a slave-trading trip to Africa. The ship returned with more than 400 illegal slaves. The conspiracy was protected by Fire Eaters, who wanted to expand slave territory and prompt the breakup of the Union. Calonius brings to life this extraordinary story from the luxurious yacht-club salons to Southern courtrooms and the Congo, in this account that reveals the complicated legacy of slavery that has yet to be sorted out in contemporary America. Vernon Ford
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

A Forgotten Step Toward the Civil War
Though it is obvious to us that slavery is unfair and immoral, it was, of course, not obvious to those who had practiced it as a tradition. Changing away from slavery in America was not done all at once, but involved various steps away from the practice. One of these steps was that in 1820 the federal government made illegal the importation of slaves from Africa. Slavery continued, but only from the stock already present (and exports of slaves continued to other places, notably to Cuba). But why should Southern slave owners pay any attention to federal rules? Indeed, as animosity towards the North grew, the prospect of flouting the law had attractions of rebellion as well as financial gain. There were successful but illegal imports, and the last one known was in 1858, on the ship the _Wanderer_. It is an almost forgotten episode, but Erik Calonius, a journalist, has brought back its history in _The Wanderer: The Last American Slave Ship and the Conspiracy that Set Its Sails_ (St. Martin's Press). It is an important story, and Calonius has told it vividly, casting light on the slave economy, relations with Britain, and the personalities of the radicals that took the South into war.

As the South's economy flagged, some were eager to improve it by resuming the importation of slaves from Africa. Many were "fire-eaters", the name for extremists who not only hated Yankee domination, but fired by horrific images of the anarchy and rape that would inevitably occur after emancipation of slaves, urged that the South boost its pride and maintain its customs, at least partially by celebrating its traditions of slavery. One of their number was Charles Lamar, a wealthy and well-connected Savannah businessman who openly declared his defiance of the Constitution and his intention to import slaves. His unsuccessful attempts to do so led him to become a partner with William C. Corrie, a like-minded South Carolinian, who arranged to buy the _Wanderer_, a swift 114 foot pleasure boat, and thereby gain entry into the prestigious New York Yacht Club. It was covertly fitted to hold hundreds of slaves and taken to Africa, where the captain entertained the officers of British Navy ships which were supposed to be keeping the slave trade down, before taking on his cargo and evading them. Aboard were 487 slaves, packed with the heartless minimum of space allotted to each. Eighty of the slaves died, and the rest made it to Jekyll Island, Georgia, for further profitable dispersion.

Charles Lamar was used to getting his way by whatever means. He predicted that he could bring the slaves in and suffer no legal consequences, and he was right. Not only were local officials sympathetic to his cause, Lamar used kidnapping, tampering with evidence, and intimidation of witnesses so that neither he nor anyone else in the case was found guilty of the importation. Lamar thought the success of the endeavor was a blow against the union, and he and his fellow fire-eaters were delighted at the prospect of Lincoln being elected president. Lamar said, "We shall have disunion, certain, if Lincoln is elected. I hope Lincoln is elected - I _want dissolution_ - and have, I think, contributed more than any man South for it." Indeed, he and his fellow fire-eaters became pamphleteers and crusaders to the many Southern farmers and merchants who were not slave-holders and who supported the Union. They brandished the scary image of freed slaves plundering the South, and so, shortly after the _Wanderer_'s successful voyage, secession had far more popular support. Calonius cites this as an example of radicals overwhelming the will of a weak, unfocused majority, while restraining himself from drawing contemporary examples. But having brought on the conflagration, the fire-eaters faded; none ascended to power in the Confederacy or in the reconstructed South. This is a troubling episode of American history, no less so for the revelations of how both North and South supported the slave trade in different ways. The lost history of the _Wanderer_ is recalled with exciting storytelling here, with all its implications for North and South and the war this particular slaving voyage helped to start.

The Wanderer as preamble to the American Civil War
Despite a lifelong fascination with the Civil War, the Wanderer and the events and characters surrounding her were quite unknown to me. My focus had been up north with those trying to save the Union by a means short of war. Calonius has advanced my perspective and understanding of this period in having introduced me to the Wanderer. A very readable book, with consistant devotion to fact and detail.

Excellent insight into the causes of the Civil War
Let me begin by saying that this is not a book that I would normally have any interest in reading. As a general rule, the topic of slavery is of almost no interest to me, and I tend to avoid the subject due to lack of interest. However, this particular book sounded like it might be interesting, so I decided to read it.

Erik Calonius is a career journalist who has had some plum assignments in his journalistic career. The Wanderer is his first book, and he should be very proud of it. The topic got his interest on a visit to Jekyll Island, outside Savannah, Georgia, when he saw an exhibit to the Wanderer. Intrigued, he started looking into it, and decided to tackle a modern telling of the story.

The slave trade was made illegal in the United States in 1820. However, some of the Southern firebrands who were pushing for secession also strongly favored reinstating the slave trade. Charles Lamar, a relative of L.Q.C. Lamar and of the second president of the Texas Republic, led the conspiracy. Lamar and his co-conspirators purchased the Wanderer, a magnificent yacht, and took her to Africa to bring back a load of slaves in 1858. His crew managed to evade the British and American naval vessels patrolling the coast of Africa and safely made it back to the United States.

Even though their purpose was a very poorly kept secret, Lamar and his co-conspirators managed to evade justice through a combination of corruption and bullying. They made witnesses disappear, tampered with evidence, and made it impossible for the government to convict them of piracy (the crime of importing slaves was designated an act of piracy, and carried the death penalty). In three separate trials in 1859, Lamar and his co-conspirators were all acquitted and escaped justice, in spite of the best efforts of the Buchanan administration to convict and execute them.

There was poetic justice: Lamar was killed in action during the Civil War, and the Wanderer, which was seized and sold by the government, ended up in Union service during the war.

The book is well-researched and very well-written, which I would expect of a senior journalist of Mr. Calonius' credentials. He has brought a topic which would normally not interest me to life with an engaging writing style that almost reads like a novel. The book does have one of my pet peeves: instead of providing specific end note references, they're lumped together at the end by page, which drives me crazy. If one were interested in further research, or reading the primary sources for oneself, this style of footnoting makes it virtually impossible to do so. I absolutely despise that footnoting style. I suspect that was the publisher's call-and not Mr. Calonius'-so I can't necessarily fault him for it.

What I liked best about this book was how it so accurately and amply used the microcosm of this single incident to demonstrate how the agenda of the fire eaters directly caused the Civil War, and how they paid the ultimate price for their calumny. It also demonstrates how the inertia and passivity of the Buchanan administration allowed events to come to a crisis situation. The inactivity of the administration permitted a few fire breathers to flaunt the law for their own purposes, and their actions in doing so directly triggered the Civil War. Ironically, the prosecution of Lamar and his co-conspirators was left in the hands of Buchanan's attorney general, Thomas Howell Cobb of Georgia, who later became a Confederate general.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book, and can highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in the causes of the Civil War.