In 1811, a plantation owner in Spanish East Florida signed a manumission paper, officially freeing his 18-year-old wife, a Senegalese woman. He assured Spanish authorities of her “nicety and fidelity” as well as her “good qualities." Her name was Anna Kingsley. Captured in the endemic violence of west Africa, Anna lived an extraordinary life.
There is legitimate controversy over which ship was America’s first true battleship. But the Navy answers that question relatively clearly- USS Indiana was, from the outset, called "Battleship Number One."