[Seaman’s protection document.] United States of America. No. 1162. I Jedidiah Huntington, collector of the district of New-London…

New London, Connecticut, 14 January 1799. 12.75” x 7.75”, completed in manuscript. CONDITION: Good, several small tears.

A rare seaman’s protection document signed by Jedidiah Huntington and certifying the American citizenship of one Nathan Dowling, who is described as twenty-four years old, five feet eight inches, and of dark complexion—perhaps suggesting that he was African American.

On 28 May 1796, “An Act for the Protection and Relief of American Seaman” was passed by the U.S. Congress to provide certificates of U.S. citizenship for sailors for the purpose of protecting them from impressment into the British Navy. Any sailor boarding a U.S. merchant ship whom a Royal Navy officer believed was British could be taken, resulting in the impressment of American as well as other foreign individuals into the Royal Navy. Because it was fairly easy to acquire a certificate, they were sometimes dismissed by the British as invalid. These occurrences spiked in the early 19th century when Britain experienced a shortage of naval manpower amid its ongoing war with France. The tension caused by this practice played an important role in America’s decision to declare war against Britain in 1812.

For African Americans, such forms carried the additional utility of potentially keeping them out of the hands of slave-catchers. Frederick Douglass famously acquired a later version of this form from a retired black seaman and used it during his escape from slavery, as noted in his Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, in which he provides an excellent account of the use, both authorized and unauthorized, of these and related forms.

This document reads in full:

United States of America. No. 1162. I Jedidiah Hungtington, collector of the district of New-London [Connecticut], do hereby certify, that Nathan Downing an American seaman, aged twenty four years, or thereabouts, of the height of five feet eight inches, of a dark complexion has this day produced to me proof, in the manner directed in the act, entitled, ‘An act for the relief and protection of American seaman,’ and pursuant to the said act, I do hereby certify, that the said Nathan Downing is a citizen of the United States of America. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal of office, this 14 day of January 1799. [Signed] J. Huntington, collector.

Jedidiah Huntington (1743–1818) graduated from Harvard College in 1763 and began his military career in 1769 when he was appointed ensign of the First Norwich Company. He quickly rose through the ranks and by the outbreak of the Revolutionary War was colonel of the 20th Regiment of Colonial Militia. He continued in the rank of colonel with the 8th Connecticut Regiment (1775), the 17th Regiment of Connecticut Infantry (1776), and the 1st Connecticut Regiment (1777). In May of 1777, he was commissioned brigadier general in the Continental Army, and by the war’s end was brevetted as major-general. Huntington was a member of the courts martial investigating the conduct of Gen. Charles Lee, and took part in the Court of Enquiry to try the case of Major Andre. At West Point he was instrumental in organizing the Society of Cincinnati. After retiring from the army in 1783, he was appointed State Treasurer (1786), member of the Connecticut Assembly (1786), Sheriff of New London County (1788), and Probate for the district of Norwich. In 1789, he was appointed Collector of Revenues for the port of New London by George Washington, and with the first elections under the Constitution served as a Presidential Elector. His wife Faith Huntington witnessed the Battle of Bunker Hill while traveling to see her husband in Roxbury, the trauma of which, it is said, led to her sudden death.

REFERENCES: “Jedidiah Huntington Papers” at Connecticut Historical Society online; “Seaman’s Protection Certificate for James Reed, Jr., December 21, 1814” at USS Constitution Museum online.