The slave-trade flourished from the
very birth of commerce in Puritan New England and its golden
gains and exotic voyages allured high-hearted lads from farm and
counter. In 1640 the ship Desire, built at Marblehead, returned
from the West Indies and "brought some cotton and tobacco and
negroes, etc. from thence." Earlier than this the Dutch of
Manhattan had employed black labor, and it was provided that the
Incorporated West India Company should "allot to each Patroon
twelve black men and women out of the Prizes in which Negroes
should be found."
It was in the South, however, that this kind of labor was most
needed and, as the trade increased, Virginia and the Carolinas
became the most lucrative markets. Newport and Bristol drove a
roaring traffic in "rum and niggers," with a hundred sail to be
found in the infamous Middle Passage. The master of one of these
Rhode Island slavers, writing home from Guinea in 1736, portrayed
the congestion of the trade in this wise: "For never was there so
much Rum on the Coast at one time before. Not ye like of ye
French ships was never seen before, for ye whole coast is full of
them. For my part I can give no guess when I shall get away, for
I purchast but 27 slaves since I have been here, for slaves is
very scarce.
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