The Importation of African Slaves to the Potomac River, 1732-1772

Abstract

D- URING the eighteenth century, the Potomac River was the major commercial artery for both the Northern Neck of Virginia and southern Maryland. Over the period I7 30-I770, the slave population in the two colonies, especially in the Northern Neck and adjacent piedmont, increased rapidly through importations from other parts of Virginia as well as from Africa.' The farms and plantations lying along the river provided an inviting market for the sale of Africans, and, after I749, the port town of Alexandria became the regional commercial center, a place where planters gathered to trade tobacco for slaves and goods.2 Historians seeking to explain the growth of the area's slave population have paid little attention to the extent of African importations to the Potomac, nor have they succeeded in determining where planters of the Northern Neck, its piedmont, and southern Maryland purchased their African slaves.3 Were Africans marched north to the Neck from landings