U.S. Treasury cutter captures the slave ship Antelope off Georgia

Capture of the Antelope. The U.S. Revenue-Marine cutter Dallas captured the slave ship Antelope on June 29, 1820, off the coast of Florida, which was then Spanish territory. The ship carried some 280 Africans. The capture was based on suspicion that the vessel intended to illegally import slaves into the United States, violating the 1808 prohibition on the slave trade.

Legal Proceedings. Captain John Jackson of the Dallas filed a libel in federal admiralty court in Savannah, seeking payment for the Africans or salvage value. The trial began in January 1821. The case eventually reached the Supreme Court in 1825, which determined that possession on board a vessel was evidence of property, marking the first time the Court considered the legitimacy of the international slave trade.