Stephen Bayard Wilson, Jr.
(January 1842-June 2, 1861)
“Stephen Bayard Wilson, Jr. a seventeen-year-old from Clermont, New York, set foot on the decks of the United States Sloop of War Constellation on June 22, 1859. His father was ordered to the command of the wooden man-of-war and made Stephen his clerk. In the days of the old sailing navy, a captain was permitted to appoint a civilian as his personal clerk or secretary. Understandably, a son or other family member often filled this vital role.
Captain Wilson suffered a thigh bone fracture that prevented him from taking command and he was immediately replaced by Captain John S. Nicholas. Young Stephen remained as clerk to the new commander and his father ended his career on the sick list.
Constellation was bound for the West Coast of Africa as Flagship of the United States African Squadron. The squadron’s mission was to suppress the transatlantic slave trade while protecting American commerce. During Constellation’s tour of duty, the squadron captured fourteen slave ships and liberated almost four thousand Africans destined for a life of servitude in the Americas. The flagship captured three slavers: The brig Delicia in 1859, the bark Cora in 1860, and the brig Triton in 1861. Cora, an American vessel registered in New York, contained 705 terrified Africans chained to her slave deck. On May 21, 1861, Triton, of South Carolina, was captured while making preparations to take on a cargo of Africans off Punta da Lenha, a major slave trading hub along the Congo River. Though none of Constellation’s crew knew it at the time, they had just made the first Union naval capture of the American Civil War.
Stephen Bayard Wilson, became a member of the prize crew, a detachment of officers and men who sailed Triton to the United States for a future trial in federal court. Under the command of Midshipman George A. Borchert, the prize parted company with Constellation two days after her capture. Captain Nicholas wrote to the Secretary of the Navy requesting that Wilson and the other members of the prize crew be discharged since they had served two years on the African station. Wilson must have experienced great anticipation with the knowledge that he might be returning home for good.
Those who served off the coast of West Africa were not likely to meet death through battle but through disease. On June 2, 1861 while still far from home, Wilson succumbed to yellow fever—a disease that claimed many sailors and caused some to call West Africa, “the white man’s grave.” Two days later, after putting in to Ascension Island, his shipmates from the prize crew laid him to rest in Bonetta Cemetery. Constellation’s crew learned of his death the following month along with the news that their country was torn apart by civil war. Stephen Bayard Wilson Sr. died in 1863 and was buried at St. Luke’s Cemetery in Clermont, New York. His son is memorialized on his tombstone with the simple phrase: “Died at sea.”
Today, few people think about the transatlantic slave trade or those men in the United States Navy who became casualties in the attempt to suppress it. A documentary film at the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii challenges visitors to, “Mourn the dead. Remember the battle. Understand the tragedy. Honor the memory.” This holds true for those who gave their lives off the coast of Africa.
We pause here today during the bicentennial of the abolition of the trade in the United States and the anniversary of a veteran’s death to answer that challenge.”
The slave trade is a blight on the history of civilization. In the Western world we like to think that it has ended, but it still exists in underhanded and malicious ways. In other parts of the world, it is a terrible part of everyday life. Young people are sold into slavery for the sex trades, as soldiers in dirty little wars run by soulless despots, and as cheap labour for ruthless companies.
So, while we celebrate the bicentennial of the end of the slave trade to the Americas, let us always remember those people who still labour under the indignity of being owned as property. Let us remember them in our prayers, and work for an end to the practice of the trade in human lives and souls.
Stephen Bayard Wilson, Jr., all your fellow crew men of the USS Constellation, and to all those who lost their lives fighting for the freedom and dignity of their fellow men, may you rest in peace.
