Black Men and Blue Water

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Contents

References and Sources........................................................................................................................................ixAcknowledgements..............................................................................................................................................xiIntroduction..................................................................................................................................................xiiiPART I. BLACK SAILORS IN EARLY AMERICA: FROM THE PRE-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD TO 1775Chapter 1: An Inherited Naval Tradition.......................................................................................................................3Chapter 2. Negro Participation and Performance in the Revolutionary War.......................................................................................37Chapter 3. The Aftermath of the Revolution and the War of 1812................................................................................................48PART II. FROM THE WAR OF 1812 TO THE CIVIL WAR AND POST RECONSTRUCTIONChapter 4. The Negroes' Rewards for Fighting in the War of 1812...............................................................................................99Chapter 5. The Civil War and the Post-War Reconstruction Period: The First Attempt at Establishment of the Stewards Branch Failed.............................105PART III. THE POST-RECONSTRUCTION ERA NAVYChapter 6. The End of Reconstruction (1877)...................................................................................................................137Chapter 7. The Abolitionist Demise, Betrayal by the Republican Party and White Supremacy: The Emergence of Naval Policy Based Upon Racism.....................142Chapter 8. Methods of Forced Submission and Exploitation: Affect Upon Navy Personnel Policy...................................................................152Chapter 9. The Next Push Toward A Naval Policy Based Upon Race................................................................................................158Chapter 10. The Formation of the Messmen/Stewards Branch (1893)...............................................................................................166PART IV. NEGROES IN THE U.S. NAVY DURING THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR (1898)Chapter 11. The Intensification and the Continued Rise of Racism: It's Affect Upon Naval Personnel Policy.....................................................177Chapter 12. The Proud History of the Steward's Branch.........................................................................................................184Chapter 13. World War I and the Final Push for a "Lily White" Navy............................................................................................192PART V. NEGROES IN THE U.S. NAVY DURING WORLD WAR IIChapter 14. U.S. Mobilization for WWII: The Status of Negroes.................................................................................................209Chapter 15. Messboys at the Naval Academy: The Lost Battalion and Bancroft Hall...............................................................................221Chapter 16. The Messboy's Required Adaptation for Naval Service...............................................................................................240Chapter 17. Negro Performance in WWII: Stolen Honor...........................................................................................................248Chapter 18. Goals of Naval Personnel Policy: The Selection of Messboys 1932-1974..............................................................................259Chapter 19. The Effects of Executive Order #8802 Upon the Messmen's Branch....................................................................................282Chapter 20. The Battle Record of the Navy's Stewards in WWII..................................................................................................306Chapter 21. Changes in U.S. Naval Policy Between WWII and the "Korean Conflict"...............................................................................327Chapter 22. Racism Retards Navy's Vietnam Effort..............................................................................................................352Chapter 23. Failure of Navy Advancement in Human Resources in the Post-Vietnam Era............................................................................361Epilogue......................................................................................................................................................375Endnotes......................................................................................................................................................381

Chapter One

1.) WHY THE HARSHNESS AND MALTREATMENT OF PERSONNEL IN THE BRITISH NAVY WAS MITIGATE IN THE COLONIAL NAVY

To fully understand the evolution of the role of Black Sailors in America, we must first examine the historical context in which they developed. America's Colonist inherited their naval traditions from stern and, brutal taskmasters, the officers of the British Navy. As mentioned previously, the sea was a cruel, harsh, and brutal profession for a man to follow. But Americans had no choice in developing a Navy and Merchant Marine. This became evident before the American Colonies secured their freedom from England. Colonial development depended upon the sea and some of the harshness inherited from the English was mitigated here; a fact often overlooked in most naval histories. As subjects of England, the British Colonies possessed no standing military units or military academies of their own.

The U.S. Navy derived from the colonial Merchant Marine in early America. Many trading, whaling, shipbuilding ventures, as in other countries, were corporate efforts. America was not yet a highly urbanized country with a large and impersonal population. So, merchantmen crews came from the same area and many knew each other. Captains knew many of their crewmembers families. Also, there were no generally available financial institutions such as we have today. Local families often bought investments in sea ventures. The U.S. Merchant Marine from whom the U.S. Navy emerged was not composed of the dregs (wretched debtors and scrapings of British jails or unfortunate men caught by "press gangs") of society as found on English ships. On our privateers and naval vessels during the Revolution and War of 1812, most men were volunteers. Brutality appeared later on the Merchant and naval vessels.

To ride a Privateer or Merchant ship where fellow community members and, even the Captain, were known to common seamen militated against the type of impersonal brutality found on British ships. So even when colonists, participating as privateers (actual reservist), under the British in England's War with Spain and France, American seamen fared better than those seamen of their masters, the British. This changed only after urbanization and competition on the sea came about. In the war against Spain, France, and Holland, American Seamen served with a different motivation. Where the "press-gang" was the principal recruiting instrument and, the Cat-O-Nine tails, the focal point of discipline for...