Due to the abolitionist movement in the United States, a squadron of U.S. Navy warships and cutters were assigned to catch slave traders in and around Africa.

His arrival marked the beginning of America's growing effectiveness in the suppression though the overall victories were insignificant compared to the Royal Navy's West Africa Squadron in the same period.

The British captured hundreds of slave ships and fought several naval battles; their success was largely due to the superior size of their navy and supply bases located in Africa itself.

The combined efforts of both the British and the United States successfully freed thousands of slaves but the trade continued on and the operation was expanded to the West Indies, Brazil and the Indian Ocean.

For the next sixteen months, Truxtun patrolled off West Africa, visiting Monrovia, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where slaves were freed.

On October 30, 1845, Truxtun weighed anchor at Monrovia, and she headed west towards Gosport Navy Yard, which she reached on November 23.

Lieutenant John A. Davis was informed that suspected slavers in the American barque Ann D. Richardson were bound for the coast of Africa under false papers.

Soon after, as Perry came within gun range, Lieutenant Davis and his men witnessed some of Martha's crew throwing a desk over the side while raising the American flag.

The slavers apparently did not realize that the brig was a United States Navy vessel until an officer and a few enlisted men were dispatched, at which time they lowered the American ensign and raised a Brazilian flag.

A hidden deck was found below with a large amount of farina and beans, over 400 wooden spoons, and metal devices used to restrain slaves.

The 1,066 ton clipper ship USS Nightingale originally sailed as part of the American merchant fleet as Nightengale of Boston[citation needed] in China, before trade in that region became unprofitable during the 1850s.

Saratoga's Captain later described the slaver; "For some time the American ship Nightingale of Boston, Francis Bowen, master, has been watched on this coast under the suspicion of being engaged in the slave trade.

Lieutenant John J. Guthrie, who was from North Carolina, then a slave state, was suspected of freeing the two and letting them escape justice.

[6] United States Navy operations against the slave trade largely ceased in 1861 with the outbreak of the American Civil War.