"The American ship Rebecca...arrived in the River Congo...to receive a cargo of slaves...she waits with impunity at anchor...until a cargo can be purchased." -British and Foreign State Papers (1867)
"The Last Slave Ship by George Howe...this slave thief with pockets full of gold from the traffic in human flesh enlisted to fight men who owned slaves bequeathed to them by their ancestors." -Daily Review (Wilmington, N.C.), July 7, 1890
"The Last Slave-ship by George Howe M.D. is the...entirely true narrative of a voyage on a slaver from New Orleans to the Congo and back to the West Indies in 1859." -The Enterprise and Vermonter, July 4, 1890
How did the American slave ship Rebecca evade capture and successfully deliver its cargo of slaves to Cuba in 1859, and was the Rebecca really the last slave ship?
In 1859 George W. Howe (1839-1890), a crew member aboard the slaver Rebecca, published a short, 30-page account of his experiences as medic on what he termed the last American slave ship voyage.
In describing how he was unwittingly coaxed to become a slave ship crew member, Howe writes:
"At nine o'clock on the morning of April 26th, while I was awaiting the usual arrivals at the gates, one of the professors, Dr. Howard Smith, drove up in his buggy, and without replying to my salutation, said: 'George, how would you like to go to the coast of Africa?' The doctor was a very pleasant gentleman, and a great favorite among the students, and, believing him to be in a very pleasant mood, I replied: 'First rate, doctor.' 'How soon can you get ready?' 'I am ready now.'"
About the author
George W. Howe, MD was a medical doctor in New Orleans, Louisiana who died on December 16, 1890. He went to medical school in New Orleans, matriculating to the New Orleans School of Medicine in 1859 and graduating in 1861. Howe ran a medical practice in New Orleans and even served on a commission looking into yellow fever and cholera cases.
In 1859, Howe served as ship's physician on the slave ship Rebecca in 1859, which was supposed to transport the last of the manumitted slaves of merchant John McDonogh from New Orleans to Liberia for the American Colonization Society. Howe's narrative of the voyage and actions of the ship's owners and crew to purchase slaves in Africa and ship them to the West Indies was published as "The Last Slave-Ship" in the 1859 July-December issue of Scribner's Magazine.
