COREY MALCOM TO PRESENT: A Slave Ship Letter from 1819

Place: Monroe County Library, Auditorium, Key West

In the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society’s Schimmel Archives, there is a letter written aboard a slave ship off the coast of Africa in 1819. In the document, written some 10 years after slaving was made illegal, the captain offers the vessel’s owner an update of the venture’s progress. Though the general subject of the letter is clear, many details are obscured: the writer uses many phrases unique to the slave trade; names are given but nothing known about to whom they refer; the vessel’s name is not stated. Through careful historical analysis, Corey Malcom has been able to uncover the name of the ship, identify the letter’s writer and receiver, and learn many details of the voyage. Surprisingly, the study of the letter exposed the active involvement of Pardon C. Greene in the African slave trade, shortly before he was to become one of Key West’s founding fathers. From the hints of a few cryptic paragraphs, a fascinating view into the circumstances of an illegal slaving voyage is revealed.

Corey Malcom is the long-time Secretary for the Key West Maritime Historical Society and a frequent contributor to the Sea Heritage Journal. For nearly 25 years, he has worked as the Director of Archaeology for the not-for-profit Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society. He has spent countless hours both above and below the water studying maritime history and archaeology, especially as they relate to the Spanish-colonial maritime system and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.