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The Slavery Connection
The colony of
Rhode Island was by far the
most active of the colonies in the slave trade and
the DeWolf family of
Bristol , Rhode Island were by far the most active
family in the trade. The D’Wolf family's venture into
the slave trade flourished during
the years 1790 to
1807 under Mark’s sons; James,
John ,
William, Charles, and Levi,
and his grandson George,
(Son of
Charles). There were a total of 109
recorded slaving voyages attributed to the
D’Wolf family as either sole owners or jointly with other
owners. (And most likely many more unrecorded
voyages).
The slave trade,
particularly as it concerns Rhode Island ’s interest in
the
trade, was known as the “Triangle Trade,”
(Slaving
ships left Rhode Island with Rum and
other cargo for
West Africa where they
traded for slaves, which were then
carried to ports in
the Caribbean
and sold. Sugarcane and molasses would be purchased in
island ports such as Havana
, Cuba and transported
back to Rhode Island where local
distilleries transformed it into rum and
the vicious cycle
would begin once again).
The largest distillery in
Bristol , (and in Rhode Island)
was owned by the D’Wolf
family. (There were also two large distilleries in
Newport, Rhode Island.) Members of the D’Wolf
family were engaged in every facet of the
slave trade. There were D’Wolfs engaged in
distilling the
rum and D’Wolfs serving as captains
on slave ships. Members of
the family financed
slave trips and owned 48 ships
of their own in the
trade. In addition, the family
owned plantations in
Cuba
and in Guadeloupe
where slaves were taken and worked when market prices were low.
James, the scion of the family eventually became a
U.S. Senator and the
second richest man in America . It can truly be stated,
“That the
D’Wolf family fortune was built on
the
backs of slaves.”
In 1794,
the Federal Slave Trade Act was passed,
which prohibited any ships in the trade to be outfitted in
American Ports. Slaving ships that were seized were put up
for auction. However, slave trading merchants intimidated
potential buyers and repurchased their own ships for
pennies on the dollar.
The schooner Lucy,
one of Charles D'Wolf's slave ships was
confiscated in 1799 and
William Ellery, (Collector for the Port of
Newport) sent the surveyor,
Samuel Bosworth to Bristol to bid on the condemned
ship. John Brown, (Providence Brown family)
and two of the D'Wolf brothers, then paid a visit to
Bosworth and threatened him with a dunking in the harbor
in an attempt to scare him off from bidding on the vessel.
Despite the threats, Bosworth arrived at the wharf for the
auction and was met by a party of "Local Thugs"
disguised as Indians and wearing blackface who carried him
to a waiting sailboat and took him two miles up the bay
where they left him afoot. The DeWolf's then
arranged a bid on their own ship through a
second party, intimidated the remaining bidders and
bought the ship back at a bargain basement
price. (SEE:
1800 William Ellery Stampless Folded Letter)
The slave trade
was legally banned in the
United States in 1808, however
the
D’Wolfs and others continued in the
trade until the early 1820s. One of
the
methods employed by American slavers to avoid the law
was to register their vessels with Spanish papers
and employ Spanish Captains
and crews. In 1820, Congress passed a
new law which included slave trading
as an act of piracy and was punishable
by death. By the mid 1820s,
British and American seizures of slave ships
and a lack of open markets in
the
Americas
had made the trade unprofitable and the
D’Wolf family began to diversify into other trades such as
cotton. In addition, now that James D'Wolf
was a U.S. Senator the family needed to
appear a bit more respectable.
Between 1709
and 1807 there were 934
recorded slave voyages sponsored or
undertaken by Rhode Island merchants,
carrying over 106,000 slaves from their
homeland in Africa. 80 percent of this slave
trade was carried out from the ports of Bristol
and Newport with Providence a distant third
at 14 percent. During the peak of the slave trading years,
Newport slavers owned or managed over
thirty rum distilleries and over 150
slave ships.
James,
John, William, Charles,
George, Levi, and Samuel
DeWolf were responsible for 60 percent
of all slave voyages originating out of
Bristol, Rhode Island in the years 1784
to 1808. Over 33 percent
of the slave voyages originating in
Rhode Island were carried out after the trade was
outlawed in 1808.
The slave trade in Rhode
Island was not simply limited to supplying slaves to the
south and the Caribbean. Between 1715 and
1755, the Black population in Rhode
Island tripled twice and by 1755,
Black slaves made up 111/2
percent of the total population in the
state. Most of these slaves were used on the farms
and plantations in the Narragansett
and South County areas across the bay from
Newport.
The reality is that
the
economy of Rhode Island during the
latter 18th and early 19th
centuries was heavily based on slavery and
the
slave trade. From families such as DeWolf,
Lopez, Malbone, Brown,
Vernon , and others, which were
actually engaged in the
trade, to the
cotton and textile mills that
depended on southern slave labor for
their products; Rhode Islanders played more than just a
passing role in perpetuating the
institution of slavery. |
