Caleb B. Gardner (April 27, 1741 – December 24, 1806) of Newport, Rhode Island, was an American slave trader and slavery oligarch.
[8] In 1766, as Captain of the Surprize [sic], he made a triangle trade voyage to Liverpool, then Bonny, where enslaved captives were purchased.
He resided in Newport in 1778, when the French squadron under Count d'Estaing was blockaded there by the greatly superior British fleet under Admiral Howe.
Count d'Estaing's report of the affair to Louis XVI was confidential, since its disclosure would have exposed Gardner to the dangerous displeasure of the English government and of the Tory element in Rhode Island.
However, through his ambassador in the United States, the Chevalier de la Luzerne, the King sent a substantial sum of money to Gardner.
Throughout the war, Colonel Gardner was said to be a trusted adviser of the French officers in Rhode Island and of enslaver General George Washington, who was his friend and correspondent.
Caleb Gardner and Peleg Clarke, who also was a well known slaving captain before the war, served as members of the Rhode Island assembly, one in the upper, the other in the lower house.
They also controlled the majority of schools and universities, churches, mainstream newspapers, and public affairs in a way that guaranteed their personal power and wealth.
By 1785, Caleb Gardner, Captain and owner of more than a dozen slave trade vessels, was again trafficking in enslaved human beings at ports around the world -- as if the war had never happened.
[14] In 1789, The Pennsylvania Herald and New York General Advertiser published a notice for debt collection by William Gordon, Esq.
of Bedford, against Caleb Gardner and Nathaniel Briggs, co-owners of the brigantine Hope, and its Captain John Stanton.
The Hope had recently returned to Rhode Island after taking a cargo of African captives to the West Indies.
[16] In June 1791, the State Gazette of North Carolina published this extract from a Newport, Rhode Island letter dated May 9, 1791: "On the 7th inst.
One that was on board this vessel during the voyage informed me that a few days after they sailed from Africa, symptoms of the small pox appeared upon a female slave.
Captain William Gardner navigated the Hope from Rhode Island to Anomabu, where 83 captives embarked, and then to St. Thomas, where 67 disembarked.
William Gardner navigated the Liberty from Newport, Rhode Island, to an unspecified port in Africa, where 76 captives embarked.
[21] In 1798, as Captain of the Fair Penitent, Gardner navigated to Liverpool, lles de Los, Guinea, where 278 captives embarked.
[22] In 1806, Caleb Gardner made his final slave trade voyage as Co-Captain and owner of the brig Trial.