Introduction
Newport, Rhode Island was a hub of the Atlantic Slave Trade, as well as a hub of religious freedom in the colonies since its founding in the mid 1600’s (Clark-Pujara, 2009). The triangle trade had helped build wealth in the area by creating a cycle of slavery and production that was immensely profitable for those involved in any way, such as James Carpenter and Simon Pease Jr. The colony had some of the earliest restrictions on slavery in their legislation, though there is no evidence such restrictions were ever enforces (Waxman, 2017).
In 1759, Simon Pease Jr. saw his first slave ship leave his home port in Rhode Island (SlaveVoyages, 2008). He was a man of 23 years coming from a wealthy family of high social prominence (Find a Grave, 2020). His father Simon Pease Sr. was a merchant and a contributor to the prestigious Redwood library in Newport, RI (Redwood History, 2017). This ship was named, “Three Friends”. The Three Friends would go on to bring many kidnapped African natives across the Atlantic for the benefit of Rhode Islanders (SlaveVoyages, 2008). It was just one of many ships hailing from Rhode Island that would have an outsized impact on the Atlantic Slave Trade.
The captain of the Three Friends, James Carpenter, was setting out on a daunting new venture that day (SlaveVoyages, 2008). He had co-captained other slave kidnapping voyages since he was 23, but today at 28, he was setting out on his first kidnapping voyage as sole captain (SlaveVoyages, 2008, Find a Grave, 2020). James and his crew set sail for Ghana, Africa. Specifically, the Cape Coast Castle, from Rhode Island. They landed on New Years’ eve 1759 in Africa (SlaveVoyages, 2008). The Cape Coast Castle was the point of no return for many African people, including those on the Three Friends ship.
In Africa
The crisp white facade of the Cape Coast Castle betrays its true, heinous nature. The structure was not built to hold common commodities and transformed into a holding place for slaves, unlike other ports Ghana, such as Elmina Castle. Cape Coast Castle was designed for the slave trade. Each element of its architecture made the process of enslavement more efficient. The dungeons used for holding slaves were built under the earth (Hartman, 2008). The slaves that had been brought to this place were trafficked from the interior of the continent. They were often kidnapped, coerced, or tricked into making this journey. Cape Coast Castle’s dungeons were used as a “way station for human refuse (Hartman, 2008)”. The ship stayed in port at Cape Coast Castle for 74 days. On March 14, 1790, Three Friends left Ghana, with 78 enslaved individuals (SlaveVoyages, 2008).
Trip Back To Rhode Island
The Three Friends sailed for 105 days. On June 27, 1760, Three Friends arrived back in port in Rhode Island, with 63 enslaved individuals. 15 enslaved individuals did not make it to the port. There is no documentation on these individuals’ lives or deaths, nor any other of the enslaved individuals on the ship, except for the numbers of how many embarked and how many disembarked (SlaveVoyages, 2008). Though in general conditions on these ships was torturous and harsh.
Arrival in Rhode Island and After
The 63 individuals that made it to the North American continent were then sold into slavery across the British colonies. Rhode Island, and especially the port in Newport, was responsible for bringing more than 110,000 humans from their home continent to the Americas to be forced into Slavery (P.Fay, 2020). Rhode Island and the Providence Plantations played a large role in the trans-atlantic slave trade. A large portion of the profits made were through the triangle trade, bringing slaves from Africa to the carribean and other sugar rich locations, transporting the sugar cane to Rhode Island, turning it into rum, bringing that rum to Africa and purchasing slaves. The cycle then begins again (Clark-Pujara, 2009). This brought the small state an enormous amount of wealth at the cost of each human life that was forced into this system.
Resources:
Clark-Pujara, C. M. (2009). Slavery, emancipation and Black freedom in Rhode Island, 1652-1842. doi:10.17077/etd.sj5oa7gh
Find a Grave, 2020, findagrave.com
Hartman, Saidiya V. Lose Your Mother: a Journey along the Atlantic Slave Route. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008.
P.Fay, Author. Newport Middle Passage, 21 July 2020, newportmiddlepassage.org/.
“Redwood History: Simon Pease.” Redwood History: Simon Pease | Redwood Library and Athenæum, www.redwoodlibrary.org/blog/mfarias/2017/01/26/redwood-history-simon-pease.
SlaveVoyages, 2008, www.slavevoyages.org.
Waxman, O. (2017, May 18). First Slavery Ban: Why Rhode Island’s 1652 Law Was Ignored. Retrieved November 28, 2020, from https://time.com/4782885/rhode-island-antislavery/