[CHAPTER VII]
The Slave Trade
In no branch of history is the culpability of the liquor traffic more thoroughly shown than in its relation to the slave trade. The making of rum aided and almost supported the slave trade in this country. The poor negroes were bought on the coast of Africa by New England sea captains and paid for with barrels of New England rum. These slaves were then carried on slave ships to the West Indies and sold at a large profit to planters and slave dealers for a cargo of molasses. This was brought to New England, distilled into rum, and sent off to Africa; thus the circle of molasses, slaves, and rum was completed.
In 1708 the West Indies afforded the great demand for negroes; they also furnished the raw material supplying the manufacture of the main merchandise which the thirsty Gold Coast drank up in barter for its poor, banished children. Governor Hopkins stated that for more than thirty years prior to 1764 Rhode Island sent to the Coast annually eighteen vessels carrying 1,800 hogsheads of rum. It displaced French brandies in the trade of the Coast after 1723. The commerce in rum and slaves afforded about £40,000 per annum for remittance from Rhode Island to Great Britain. Molasses and poor sugar, distilled in Boston and more especially in Newport into rum, made the staple export to Africa. Some obtained gallon for gallon of molasses, but the average was 96 to 100. Newport had twenty-two still houses. Boston had the best example, owned by a Mr. Childs. The cost of distilling was five and a half pence per gallon. Cisterns and vats cost fourteen to sixteen shillings per one hundred gallons, in 1735, not including lumber. The quantity of rum distilled was enormous, and in 1750 it was estimated that Massachusetts alone consumed more than 15,000 hogsheads of molasses for this purpose. The average price of molasses in the West Indies was thirteen or fourteen pence per gallon. The consumption of rum in the fisheries and lumbering and ship-building districts was large.
There was no article of merchandise comparable to rum on the African coast. Our forefathers' instincts were neither moral nor immoral; they were simply economic. They had tried dry-goods, and Africa rejected them in favor of the wet. Captain George Scott writes lamenting the purchasing of dry-goods and says, "had we laid out two thousand pounds in rum, bread and flour, it would purchase more in value than all our dry-goods."
The cargo of the Caesar, out-bound, was: eighty-two barrels, six hogsheads and six tierces of New England rum; thirty-three barrels of best Jamaica spirits; thirty-three barrels of Barbadoes rum; twenty-five pairs of pistols; two casks of musket-balls; one chest of hand arms; twenty-five cutlasses. The return cargo was: in the hold on board the scow Caesar, one hundred and fifty-three adult slaves, and two children.
The ships were light of draught and built for speed. The captain and the crew were men little troubled with scruples touching the work they had to do. Once off the coast of Mozambique or Guinea, the cargo was rapidly made up. If a band of blacks, moved by curiosity, came round the vessel in a skiff, they were sure to be lured on board, ironed, and hurried into the hold. If a boat's crew went on shore, they came back dragging some wretched man between them. For rum the native princes gladly sold prisoners that their subjects made in war. When every available inch of space had been filled, the slaver turned westward and made for some southern port. The coast line had scarcely disappeared from view when the hatches were taken off and the terrors of the voyage began. Every fine day at sunrise the slaves were driven on deck. Such as were noisy had the thumb-screws put on. Such as were hard to manage were chained in pairs by the arms, or the ankles, or the necks. At the first sign of insurrection the leaders were shot down and cast into the sea. Their food was salt pork and beans. Their sole exercise was dancing and capering about the deck. This they were made to do. If any refused the cat-o'-nine-tails or the rope's end was vigorously applied. When the sun set the whole band went below. The transactions of one of these slavers are preserved in the history of New Bedford and make interesting reading for those who would hold up the Puritan as innocent of the transgression which stains the character of the Cavalier.
| Dr. The natives of Annamboe. | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1770 | ||
| Apr. 22. | To one hhds. of rum | 110 |
| May 1. | To one hhds. of rum | 130 |
| May 2. | To one hhds. of rum | 105 |
| May 7. | To one hhds. of rum | 108 |
| Cr. Per contra. | ||
| Apr. 22. | By one woman slave | 110 |
| May 1. | By one prime woman slave | 130 |
| May 2. | By one boy slave 4 ft. 1 in. | 105 |
| May 7. | By one boy slave 4 ft. 3 in. | 108 |
The Southern Planter
Liquor and slavery combined produced the Southern planter, whose life has often been described by various writers. When Yeardley assumed control of affairs in Virginia, the Company required that there should be inserted in all formal grants of land a covenant that the patentees should not apply themselves either wholly or principally to the culture of tobacco, but should divide their attentions among a number of commodities carefully specified in each deed. These consisted of Indian corn, wheat, flax, silk-grass, and wine. Parton, in his Life of Jefferson, says that the Virginia planter expended the proceeds of his tobacco in vast ugly mansions, heavy furniture, costly apparel, Madeira wines, fine horses, and slaves.