Siah Hulett Carter: Escape on the Monitor

Siah Carter, a 22-year-old enslaved African American, risked his life and rowed a small boat out to the USS Monitor in hopes of being given sanctuary and a ride to freedom with the Union Army. He was the first of 18 enslaved African Americans to escape from Shirley during that year.

Siah Hulett was born on October 4, 1839, to John and Molly Hulett, who were both enslaved living on the Shirley Plantation in Charles City County, Virginia. Siah worked as a carpenter on Colonel Hill Carter’s plantation until the night of May 18, 1862, when he rowed out to the Monitor which was moored off of City Point in the James River.

The armed guards on deck yelled, “Boat, ahoy,” and shot at the approaching boat.

Captain Jeffers yelled to his crew, “Boarders!” calling every available crewmen to the deck to ready to fight.

But, instead, they found “a poor trembling contraband – begging not to be shot…” Siah was described as 5’6-1/2″ to 5’8-1/2″ tall with brown eyes, black hair, and a dark complexion. He enlisted in the US Navy for a three-year term as a ship’s boy the next day using his master’s name as his own– Siah Hulett Carter. He was the first contraband to join the Monitor’s crew. He told the other men that Hill Carter had warned the slaves not to join the Union Navy because, “the Yankees would carry them out to sea…& throw them overboard.”

He survived the sinking of the Monitor on December 31, 1862, and went on to serve on the USS Brandywine, Florida, Belmont, Wabash, and Commodore Barney. While onboard the last of these, he suffered from frost bite and was discharged on May 19, 1865. He lived in St. Mary's County, Maryland and Philadelphia, after the war, where he worked as a laborer. He married Eliza Tarrow and the couple had 13 children.

He died on April 12, 1892. He is buried in Eden Cemetery in Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

Sources: USS Monitor Center at the Mariner's Museum and Park; Auction Central News (Assoc. Press); Library of Congress