Expeditionary
African Squadron Operations 1843
Commodore Matthew Perry's first major independent command, a punitive and diplomatic tour of the West African coast under the new American commitment, made in the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, to keep a naval squadron off Africa against the slave trade.
Through late November and December 1843, Perry's ships worked down the Liberian and Ivory coasts, landing at a series of towns, Greenville, Blue Barra, Settra Kru, Cape Palmas, and finally Little Berribee, to investigate crimes against American traders, suppress piracy and slaving, and treat with the local chiefs. Marines furnished the landing parties throughout. The tour reached its climax at Little Berribee, where a conference with the local king turned violent and ended in the burning of the town and several others nearby. The cruise asserted that the United States would back its treaty rights on the African coast with force, and it was a notable prologue to Perry's far more famous opening of Japan a decade later.
Engagements in this conflict (1)
Record no. 314