"[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.
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