Ivory Coast Expedition

Part of the African Slave Trade Patrol

Veterans of the expedition on board Saratoga in 1842.

Date

June-December 1842

Location

Ivory Coast, Liberia, Atlantic Ocean

Result

American victory

Little Bereby destroyed

Belligerents

United States

Bereby

Commanders and leaders

Matthew C. Perry

Ben Crack-O †

Strength

Land:
50 marines
150 sailors
Sea:
1 frigate
2 sloops-of-war
1 brigantine

unknown

American victory

The Ivory Coast Expedition, or the Liberia Expedition, was a naval operation in 1842, launched by the United States against the West African Bereby people. After the attacks on the merchant ships Mary Carver and Edward Barley, the American Congress approved a punitive expedition to the area and placed Commodore Matthew C. Perry in command. The expedition was successful in exacting redress by destroying the fortified town of Little Bereby and by killing the chief responsible for the attacks on American shipping.

The expedition to the Ivory Coast began on June 6, 1842, when Commodore Perry hoisted sail at New York City in the 22-gun sloop-of-war Saratoga. At Porto Grande, in the Cape Verde Islands, Perry later transferred his flag to the 38-gun frigate Macedonian, which participated in the operation along with the 16-gun sloop Decatur and the 10-gun brigantine Porpoise. All of the ships, except Porpoise, had a Marine Detachment aboard. From Cape Verde the Americans headed toward the coast, their mission being to support Liberia, an American colony for freedmen, in suppressing the slave trade and the piratical tribes in the region. This meant conducting an investigation of the Mary Carver and Edward Barley incidents. Perry arrived off the West African coast near Sinoe in mid-November and his first objective was to gain proof regarding the piracy in that area. Accordingly, the commodore disguised Porpoise as a merchantman and sent her in to shore. Almost immediately war-canoes appeared and tried to take control of the ship, but Commander Stellwagen was able to get away without firing a shot. Sinoe was selected as a base, partly because the Sinoe tribe was suspected of treachery as well as the Bereby tribe.

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