Chapter IV

THE TRADING COLONIES.

16.  Character of these Colonies. 17.  New England and the Slave-Trade. 18.  Restrictions in New Hampshire. 19.  Restrictions in Massachusetts. 20.  Restrictions in Rhode Island. 21.  Restrictions in Connecticut. 22.  General Character of these Restrictions.

16. Character of these Colonies. The rigorous climate of New England, the character of her settlers, and their pronounced political views gave slavery an even slighter basis here than in the Middle colonies.  The significance of New England in the African slave-trade does not therefore lie in the fact that she early discountenanced the system of slavery and stopped importation; but rather in the fact that her citizens, being the traders of the New World, early took part in the carrying slave-trade and furnished slaves to the other colonies.  An inquiry, therefore, into the efforts of the New England colonies to suppress the slave-trade would fall naturally into two parts:  first, and chiefly, an investigation of the efforts to stop the participation of citizens in the carrying slave-trade; secondly, an examination of the efforts made to banish the slave-trade from New England soil.

17. New England and the Slave-Trade. Vessels from Massachusetts,[1] Rhode Island,[2] Connecticut,[3] and, to a less extent, from New Hampshire,[4] were early and largely engaged in the carrying slave-trade.  “We know,” said Thomas Pemberton in 1795, “that a large trade to Guinea was carried on for many years by the citizens of Massachusetts Colony, who were the proprietors of the vessels and their cargoes, out and home.  Some of the slaves purchased in Guinea, and I suppose the greatest part of them, were sold in the West Indies."[5] Dr. John Eliot asserted that “it made a considerable branch of our commerce....  It declined very little till the Revolution."[6] Yet the trade of this colony was said not to equal that of Rhode Island.  Newport was the mart for slaves offered for sale in the North, and a point of reshipment for all slaves.  It was principally this trade that raised Newport to her commercial importance in the eighteenth century.[7] Connecticut, too, was an important slave-trader, sending large numbers of horses and other commodities to the West Indies in exchange for slaves, and selling the slaves in other colonies.

This trade formed a perfect circle.  Owners of slavers carried slaves to South Carolina, and brought home naval stores for their ship-building; or to the West Indies, and brought home molasses; or to other colonies, and brought home hogsheads.  The molasses was made into the highly prized New England rum, and shipped in these hogsheads to Africa for more slaves.[8] Thus, the rum-distilling industry indicates to some extent the activity of New England in the slave-trade.  In May, 1752, one Captain Freeman found so many slavers fitting out that, in spite of the large importations of molasses, he could get no rum for his vessel.[9] In Newport alone twenty-two stills were at one time running continuously;[10] and Massachusetts annually distilled 15,000 hogsheads of molasses into this “chief manufacture."[11]