1853 Autograph Note Signed, by U.S. Navy Commander William Lynch, regarding his Report on Patrolling the West African Coast to Combat the Illegal Atlantic Slave Trade

U.S.S. Germantown at Boston, 1853. Near Fine. Autograph Note Signed. Laid paper half-sheet with a border of blue paper. Measuring 6½" x 4½". One faint vertical crease, near fine. Written on board U.S.S. *Germantown* by William F. Lynch, who later served as a commander in the Confederate Navy, to U.S. naval officer and abolitionist Andrew Foote.The note reads as follows: "U.S. Ship Germantown, Boston, Nov 21, 1853 Dear Foote, I thank you for the prompt return of my M.S. report and hope that it [does] not much fall short of your expectations, Very truly, Yr. friend, W.F. Lynch."

Lynch was commander of U.S.S. *Germantown* in the Africa Squadron, whose mission was to patrol the coast of West Africa and suppress the slave trade. In 1852 U.S.S. *Germantown* had seized two slave ships: the M.S. report referenced in the letter was likely the *Report of Commander W.F. Lynch, in Relation to His Mission to the Coast of Africa* published a few months after this note. Andrew Foote was a naval officer active in the abolitionist movement. From 1849 to 1851 he commanded U.S.S. *Perry* and interdicted several slave ships while serving in the Africa Squadron. In 1854 he wrote an important anti-slavery tract: *Africa and the American Flag*.

A nice association between two important American naval commanders, both of whom combatted the illegal Atlantic slave trade, and later served as commanders in the Civil War on opposite sides of the conflict.