what were the duties of a second class fireman in the navy in the civil war

The gravestone of Elisha Gaiter, in the cemetery of Mt. During the War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain free blacks readily served in the United States Navy in capacities and ranks similar to those of the previous war. With the conclusion of hostilities between the United States and Great Britain, many free blacks who had served in the Navy continued to maintain positions on the United States’ ships of war. 1 After the conclusion of the Revolutionary War it was decided by the fledgling government, that, effective January 1, 1808, some twenty years later, there would be an official cessation of the slave trade within the United States seeing an end in sight to the primary source for the labor force in the South and the availability of new slaves, caused a feverish attempt to bring more slaves into the United States before the cut-off date.īecause of this added incentive, more slaves were brought into the United States during that twenty year period than at any other similar period of time. When the Revolutionary War erupted between the colonies and Great Britain, many blacks served in the infant United States Navy in non-commissioned sea-service ranks.

Many of the Negro slaves and freemen learned the skills of the seaman, often, not by choice, in the case of the slave. Cotton, which ultimately overshadowed these other goods, developed much later as a major crop. Ships of all types sailed the waterways of the colonies carrying tobacco, rice, indigo, wheat, sugar, rum and slaves. Prior to the Revolutionary War the intense and pervasive slave trade in the American colonies had created a fairly large maritime fleet. There were dramatic differences between the Army and the Navy in terms of status and treatment of blacks.

What were the duties of a second class fireman in the navy in the civil war