Protection papers

The day Richard Stockton was captured, General William Howe had written a proclamation offering protection papers and a full and free pardon to those willing to remain in peaceable obedience to the king, George III.

[2] Because protection papers were used to prove American citizenship, many black sailors also used them to show that they were freemen if they were stopped by officials or slave catchers.

In these papers the name, age, color, height and form of the free man were described, together with any scars or other marks upon his person which could assist in his identification.

It was therefore an act of supreme trust on the part of a freeman of color thus to put in jeopardy his own liberty that another might be free.

The records show great statistical variations depending on the port: In Philadelphia and Baltimore, the proportions of African Americans hovered around 15 percent from 1800 to 1860.

[5] The 12 July 1810 protection certificate issued in Philadelphia (see thumbnail) identities the bearer as James Forten Dunbar,(1799 -1870) a "mulatto" (a person of mixed white and black ancestry) age eleven, and height 4’ 7’’ inches tall.

Dunbar’s father William died young, and it was his uncle, the renowned James Forten who signed for and made sure "Born Free" was included in the description.

[6][7] Many of the protection certificates were so general, and it was so easy to abuse the system, that many impressment officers of the Royal Navy paid no attention to them.

Davis was listed as 23 years of age, five feet four inches, dark hair, hazel eyes, broad nose, round chin, pock marked face, and of dark complexion has a round scar above his left knee and one on the left eyebrow.

[12] Author Herman Melville while a sailor aboard the frigate USS United States (1844) was a close observer of nautical life and customs.

"[13] "In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, tattoos were as much about self-expression as they were about having a unique way to identify a sailor's body should he be lost at sea or impressed by the British navy.

Using simple techniques and tools, tattoo artists in the early republic typically worked on board ships using anything available as pigments, even gunpowder and urine.

These documents are common items in maritime collections and are important research sources for an study [sic] of American seamen.