“I Desire to Be a Freeman”: Two Children from Mozambique, the Illegal Slave Trade, and Maine, 1845–55

In early 1843, the 163-ton Porpoise left her homeport of Brunswick, Maine, bound for the warmer waters of Brazil. Making it to Rio de Janeiro in 1844, she was consigned by merchants and sailed with the Kentucky, the Garafelia, and the 17th of March for the east coast of Africa. Landing in Delagoa Bay, the ships picked up a total of approximately 2,800 slaves, bound for Rio de Janeiro. The Porpoise accompanied the slavers as support, carrying supplies in order to sustain this illegal and highly profitable journey.

Upon her return to Rio in January 1845, a crewmember aboard the Porpoise slipped a message to George W. Gordon, United States Consul at Rio. Gordon, a staunch abolitionist Whig from Boston, found that three captive African boys were aboard. Libby, the Brazilian crew, and the officers were arrested along with the crews of the other ships for piracy and engaging in the slave trade. Thus began a long journey for Pedro and Guilherme, two of the three boys, who would go on to proudly state in their depositions that they desired to be freemen and live in the United States. Pedro would spend his months waiting for the trials of those involved in his capture creating paintings and drawings of his young life in Africa, Brazil, and Boston. He would go on to be adopted by a notable Maine family, and his oral history was recorded by his adopted brother, Percival Parris.

The boys became the center of an intense arrest and trial, one that almost sent the United States and Brazil to war. The unique material culture left behind by these diasporic actors describes not only the mechanisms of the slave trade, but also the less-visible participation of Americans in the illegal slave trade.