Kidnapped At Sea: The Civil War Voyage of David Henry White,

Andrew Sillen, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024, 366 pp.,

bibliographic notes, bibliography, index.

With over 500 bibliographic notes, 20 charts, 12 illustrations, maps,

newspaper images and even sheet music, Kidnapped at Sea is an

exhaustively researched story of seafaring, blockade running, piracy,

racism -- and a kidnapping.

 

On one level it is a true crime story of a free Black American who was

kidnapped from a civilian packet ship by a Confederate naval officer. The

surrounding characters range from admirals to deck hands to diplomats.

Together they offer perspectives on the America Civil War that are

seldom explored amid the focus on land battles. Within the context of

slavery, freedom, emancipation and employment opportunities, the

author immerses reader in the spirits of the age.

 

Much of the action takes place on or about the CSS Alabama, a

Confederate raiding ship conceived in Richmond, Virginia, and birthed in

Liverpool, England, which circumnavigated the planet before the ship was

sunk near Cherbourg Harbor, France in 1864. David Henry White, a

young free Black man who had become a hotel worker and then a

contraband of war, was seized as a slave by Raphael Semmes, a

Confederate naval officer and held captive on the CSS Alabama.

The story is stirring, with vividly crafted characters who author Andrew

Sillen has reconstructed from Delaware public records and crew

manifests. He recounts White’s life before Semmes kidnapped him and

what unfolded on the Confederate raider. Schematic drawings of the CSS

Alabama and its final battle add to the dramatic account.

This is great history well told that speaks to the issues of our day.

Hopefully, Andrew Sillen has retained the film rights.   [text by CWL]