Matthew Calbraith Perry was born on April 10, 1794, in Newport, Rhode Island. Entering the navy as a midshipman (a person in training to be a ship commander) in 1809, he was assigned to a vessel commanded by his elder brother, Oliver Hazard Perry. During the War of 1812 (1812-15), he served first on a large frigate (warship), then on another frigate, the United States, which was stranded in New London, Connecticut, during a blockade by the British navy. Venturing to New York City on leave, he courted and married Jane Slidell in 1814.

Perry enjoyed a wide variety of activities in the navy: he transported freed American slaves to Liberia, a colony established for the return of illegally captured slaves (under a recently enacted law) to Africa; he helped police African shores to rid them of slave traders and pirates; and he transported the new American minister to...