But in this war, as in the Revolutionary struggle, the commissioners who concluded the terms of peace, armed with ample and authentic evidence of the Negro's valorous services, placed him among chattel property. And in no State in the South were the laws more rigidly enforced against Negroes, both free and slave, than in Louisiana. The efficient service of the Louisiana Negro troops in the war of 1812 was applauded on two continents at the time, but the noise of the slave marts soon silenced the praise of the "Black heroes of the battle of New Orleans." FOOTNOTES: [2] Laws of the State of New York, passed at the Thirty-eighth Session of the Legislature, chap. xviii. [3] Niles's Register, vol. vii. p. 205. [4] Niles's Register, vol. vii. pp. 345, 346. CHAPTER III. NEGROES IN THE NAVY. NO PROSCRIPTION AGAINST NEGROES AS SAILORS.--THEY ARE CARRIED UPON THE ROLLS IN THE NAVY WITHOUT REGARD TO THEIR NATIONALITY.--THEIR TREATMENT AS SAILORS.--COMMODORE PERRY'S LETTER TO COMMODORE CHAUNCEY IN REGARD TO THE MEN SENT HIM.--COMMODORE CHAUNCEY'S SPIRITED REPLY.--THE HEROISM OF THE NEGRO SET FORTH IN THE PICTURE OF PERRY'S VICTORY ON LAKE ERIE.--EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM NATHANIEL SHALER, COMMANDER OF A PRIVATE VESSEL.--HE CITES SEVERAL INSTANCES OF THE HEROIC CONDUCT OF NEGRO SAILORS. It is rather a remarkable fact of history that Negroes were carried upon the rolls of the navy without reference to their nationality. About one tenth of the crews of the fleet that sailed to the Upper Lakes to co-operate with Col. Croghan at Mackinac, in 1814, were Negroes. Dr. Parsons says:-- "In 1816, I was surgeon of the 'Java,' under Commodore Perry. The white and colored seamen messed together. About one in six or eight were colored. "In 1819, I was surgeon of the 'Guerriere,' under Commodore Macdonough; and the proportion of blacks was about the same in her crew. There seemed to be an entire absence of prejudice against the blacks as messmates among the crew. What I have said applies to the crews of the other ships that sailed in squadrons."[5] This ample and reliable testimony as to the treatment of Negroes as sailors, puts to rest all doubts as to their status in the United States navy. In the summer of 1813, Captain (afterwards Commodore) Perry wrote a letter to Commodore Chauncey in which he complained that an indifferent lot of men had been sent him. The following is the letter that he wrote.