NEWPORT, R.I. & TRIANGLE TRADE: THE ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS OF THE RHODE ISLAND SLAVE TRADE *An estimated 59,070 slaves were taken by Newport Slavers prior to the American Revolution. An estimated 15 million were taken to the West in total. Between 1709 and 1807, Rhode Island merchants sponsored at least 934 slaving voyages to the coast of Africa. Their ships carried an estimated 106,544 Africans from their homeland to the New World (Coughtry). Of the 421 Rhode Island slavers tabulated for the period of 1784 to 1807, 402 or 95% can be identified today by port of ownership. Three hundred and ninety-seven (98.8%) of the vessels were registered in one of the following Rhode Island towns: Bristol, Newport, Providence, and Warren. The remaining vessels were owned by merchants in Little Compton, or North Kingstown. Together, Newport and Bristol accounted for 318 African voyages, or 79.2% of post war trade which they shared equally (Coughtry). Each financed 159 ventures or 39.6% of the joint total. Providence made 55 trips, 13.74% of the total, and tiny Warren, R.I. made 24 trips with 6% of the share (Coughtry). All together, 204 different Rhode Island citizens owned a share or more in a slave voyage at one time or another. It is evident that the involvement of R.I. citizens in the slave trade was widespread and abundant. For Rhode Islanders, slavery had provided a major new profit sector and an engine for trade in the West Indies. RHODE ISLAND'S MONOPOLIZATION OF THE SLAVE TRADE Rum, as a tradable commodity in the late 1600's and early 1700's, was a factor in the establishment of the R.I. slave trade. By 1672, the exportation of brandy was taking place and was the work of profit-seeking English and West Indian interlopers, or illegal participants in the trade. The English based "Royal African Company," had in fact established a monopoly on the slave trade at this time. When British customs began to interfere with the interlopers' trade, seize their vessels, and confiscate the African goods that they returned with, the interlopers began to realize their need for less suspicious goods, and less observable points of debarkation. The interlopers then began to disembark from the West Indies instead of Africa, and substituted rum for brandy in their cargoes. As another precaution, exports began leaving England from Barbooks, instead of London. During the time that this was going on, Rhode Island was establishing its own trading system that would virtually take control over African slave markets and run its European competitors out of the market. The size, geography, and climate of R.I., made for favorable trading conditions, but the land failed to provide the merchants with anything profitable to trade. Molasses from the Carribean changed this. In the early 1700's, trade with the Carribean had established a decent market for the few Rhode Island exports, such as lumber, fish, and livestock. In turn, Rhode Island shippers imported molasses and sugar. By the 1740's, rum, sugar byproducts, and molasses were shipped to North American and African buyers. Rum was Rhode Island's biggest export, but the raw materials were not produced there. Instead, they were produced in the West Indies. Because the West Indies relied on slave labor to perpetuate their plantation system, R.I. supplied the West Indies with slaves from Africa, while the West Indies supplied R.I. with molasses. Rhode Island specifically exported their own high potency "Guinea Rum," which eventually drove out most of the West Indian rum, as well as European gin, brandy, and liquor. By carrying 1800 hogsheads of rum to the African coast every year for more than thirty years (1740 through 1760), Rhode Island destroyed the French brandy trade and had been able to discharge one third or 40,000 sterling of their annual debt to Great Britain. This appealed to Britain's economic and political self interests, and kept the British from intervening in Rhode Island trade (Coughtry). Closer to home, R.I. had also gained an edge on its neighboring New England slave traders. Rhode Island merchants ignored the Molasses Act of 1773, and smuggled goods and slaves in and out of their ports, despite the restrictions. The other New England colonies either did not try to smuggle, or more realistically, did not succeed at smuggling goods, and quickly fell behind in the trade. Newport was most likely able to smuggle so successfully for geographical reasons. Its jagged coastline was especially conducive to illegal trade, since the ships could hide in harbors and coves (R.I. Historical Society, The Last Years of the R.I. Slave Trade). Interestingly, it has been speculated that Rhode Island's reluctance to join the union may have been due to the fact that illegal smuggling was especially important to its economic success (Coughtry). In fact, local trade and commerce rivalries with Charleston, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, were sustained because of the continued involvement that Newport had in slaving (Fitts). With the establishment of Triangular Trade, Rhode Island slavers proved themselves as more efficient than the competition. Rhode Island rum was in high demand in Euro-African establishments. It was preferred along the African coast for its potency and because it was shipped swiftly and on time. In addition, R.I. slavers never left Africa empty handed. They purchased slaves at low costs and then traveled to the West Indies where the slaves could be sold. While in the West Indies, the shippers could purchase more molasses. Rum, distilled from West Indian molasses, eventually gained such high prestige that it joined gold as a local currency within the trading networks of European forts in Africa (Coughtry). These merchant areas on the African coast became extremely prosperous to trade with. They exchanged the most slaves for the least amounts of rum. This was clearly an advantageous situation for R.I. slavers, in that the economic savings had a huge growth potential. TRIANGLE TRADE Throughout the 18th Century, R.I. merchants controlled between sixty and 90 percent of the American trade in African slaves. Prior to this, R.I. trading was based upon produce and raw material imports from the West Indies and Europe, as well as finished material exports such as candles, rum, barrels, furniture, and silver goods, which were transhipped along the New England and Southern coasts. When R.I. began to take part in the slave trade and eventually monopolized the rum market, it replaced its past trading activities with Triangle Trade, or what has been referred to as "The Notorious Triangle." This "Triangular Trade" began as Rhode Island turned away from the land and toward the sea. Likewise, Triangular Trade eventually came to an end with the return to the land, in the establishment of the factory system. In triangular trade with the West Indies, rum distilled in Newport was traded along the African coast and directly exchanged there for slaves. Slaves in Africa were primarily taken from the "Gold Coast" slaving grounds which extended from Cape Verde and Senegal on the west, to the Bight of Berlin on the east. Slavers typically spent three to five months at the African slaving grounds. Slaves were then transported in Newport ships from the Gold Coast to the West Indies. The vessels are said to have transported the slaves in small numbers, because large numbers of slaves made trading ships gut the markets with slaves in poor condition. Ships rarely exceeded 200 tons and carried 75 to 100 slaves per voyage in order to minimize the risk of sickness. Disease and revolt were the two biggest killers on the ships. The mortality of the crew determined the captain's profits and losses. Health and security of the crew then, were the captain's biggest preoccupations (Coughtry). In comparison to other slavers, Newport slavers were well known in the marketplace for transporting slaves in better health and numbers, which could easily be sold at island auctions (Yanken). By no means however, were slaves on Newport vessels so sparsely packed that they did not suffer from injuries, sickness, mistreatment, and extreme pain and discomfort. In the West Indies, a majority of slaves were sold, and Newport received molasses in return. The molasses was then transported back to Newport, and there it was used to make more rum. At its peak in 1740, slaving interests in Newport owned or managed thirty rum distilleries and 150 trading vessels (Yanken). The profits generated from triangular trade provided Newport merchants with extra capital. This venue was put toward additional trading indulgences and luxury items. In addition to the West Indies, a portion of Newport slaves was sold to the Southern plantations, and to neighboring counties such as Narragansett, North Kingstown, and South Kingstown. African slaves were auctioned off along Long Wharf, upper Thames Street, Spring Street, and Mill Street, in Newport. During Triangular Trade, Newport actually "perpetuated slavery in the New World and kept the West Indies and the (southern) plantation complex' alive and profitable" (Yanken). By 1765, the R.I. economy had become dependent on the slave trade. Newport entrepreneurs invested increasing amounts of surplus and capital in more expensive, but more productive African voyages (Coughtry). Slaves that were not auctioned off were put to work and served aboard merchant ships. By 1807, black sea men made up 21% of all Newport crews engaged in West Indian, European, and African trades (Coughtry). Some historical accounts have argued for their own purposes that Newport slavers "merely transported or exchanged the slaves" and did not buy them for their own homes and labor. In emphasizing the idealized argument behind the trade, the historical image of Newport as a Quaker- influenced, northern colony, which was "exempt from the atrocities of slavery," is a flawed image. In one account, a slave ship captain reported, "Slaves are not usually used in Newport per say, they are but a profitable trading item, a business commodity" (Scott). Another account describes Newport's participation in the slave trade as such, "No matter what its role may have been in the R.I. economy, the slave trade was not a source of speculation for the ordinary citizen. Investment opportunities were confined to the maritime community" (Coughtry). Biased accounts such as these, are misleading. In actuality, in the 18th Century, a number of Newport households took full advantage of African labor. Africans brought highly valued animal husbandry techniques, cooking, and building skills. Slaves owned by Newport locals were used by merchants and craftsmen alike. Slavery provided Newport with the man power that was necessary for the production, loading, and transportation of rum. Investors, bankers, loan officers, and shipping manufacturers alike, played an active role in the slave trade. In effect, the slave trade had fully integrated itself into Rhode Island's economic structure. ACCOUNTS FROM NEWPORT SLAVING SHIPS The Sloop "Sally" ...from The Last Years of the Rhode Island Slave Trade In 1765, Captain Esek Hopkins left the shores of Africa on "The Sally" and headed westward along the middle passage' in August. On their travel, many slaves died due to disease, suicide, and unsanitary conditions. There was also a great deal of brutality and murder. The prominent Brown family of Providence had participated in the slave trade all along. Moses Brown had seen the incidents that took place on "The Sally" first hand, and from then on it is said that he never took part in slaving again. Moses eventually went on to become one of the most outspoken abolitionists in New England, while his family continued to participate in the slave trade. George Scott, A Slave Trader of Newport, by Kenneth Scott A Boston newsletter on April 29, 1731 regarding a slave uprising on a slave ship bound for Newport read: "We hear from Rhode Island that Captain George Scott of that place, who sometime since went from thence to Guinea, and was returning with a cargo of Negroes, they rose upon the said commander and company, and barbarously murdered three of his men, the said captain and the rest of his company made their escape, tho tis said they are all since dead except the captain and a boy; The Negroes we are informed were afterwards taken and made slaves by those other nation."