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African men crowded onto a lower deck; African women crowded on an upper deck.
The Africans of the slave bark "Wildfire"--The slave deck of the bark "Wildfire," brought into Key West on April 30, 1860. Illus. in: Harper's weekly, 1860 June 2, p. 344. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ds.14012

Key West Slave Ship Seizures and the Slave Trade in 19th Century Florida

Posted by: Jennifer González

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The following is a guest post by Ryan Schleifer, an intern with the Digital Resources Division of the Law Library of Congress. He is a graduate of the University of Central Florida with a history major and a creative writing minor.

In 1860, three illegal slave ships (slavers) were captured near the coast of