Illegally Sold: The Josefa Segunda and Its Captives in New Orleans, 1818–1832

Abstract

ABSTRACT In April 1818, U.S. officers seized the Spanish brig Josefa Segunda, which they found ‘hovering’ in the Mississippi, and brought her to New Orleans. On board were 152 enslaved Africans. Barely a year later, the enslaved people were sold by the local sheriff, as permitted by the court under Louisiana legislation. What followed the sale of the captives was a series of legal battles in which the multiple parties involved tried to secure a financial advantage for themselves, including the Josefa Segunda cases heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1820 and again in 1825. However, in 1830, the Supreme Court decided that the sale of the captives had been illegal under the 1819 ‘Act in addition to the Acts prohibiting the slave trade’, which had not been applied in the previous appeals. The 1819 legislation decreed that any such captives should be turned over to the federal government and sent to Africa. This article illustrates some of the tensions and contradictions in the early U.S. effort to curtail the trade in African captives and offers clues for a future effort to trace the lives of people who were, as recognized by the Supreme Court, illegally enslaved.