New York and the Slave Trade, 1700 to 1774

Abstract

4tr aditional stereotype of slave trade is that of Yankee captains /j who loaded their vessels in Boston or Newport, sailed off to Africa to LI Xdeal in human cargo, and then raced disease, malaise, and danger of mutiny to markets in plantation colonies. The slave trade as carried on by colonials is described in American history texts as of famous triangular trades, which were allegedly important sources of wealth for northern colonies. However, recent studies by James F. Shepherd and Gary M. Walton have severely shaken assumptions concerning triangular trades, and a reexamination of colonial slave trade as carried on from of leading slave ports would seem to be in order. ' Although Boston and Newport are generally reputed to have been major slaving ports in North America, New Yorkers also engaged in slaving. Edgar McManus notes that the slave trade fast became of cornerstones of New York's commercial in eighteenth century.2 That colony at close of colonial period possessed largest black population north of Maryland, and its merchants at times traded fairly extensively to Africa. Therefore, New York's customs reports and newspapers offer insights into colony's involvement in traffic, as well as into origins of its black population. Enough data exist to warrant comment on various aspects of trade. How extensive was it? Was it initiated by New York merchants? To what degree was it triangular? Did New York City serve as an entrepot from which other colonies were supplied? Was trade actually one of cornerstones of New York's commercial prosperity in this period. The answers to these and other questions provide means to test traditional views of colonial slave trade. Data for this inquiry come from three basic sources. Naval Office