How the North Promoted, Prolonged and Profited from Slavery” by Anne Farrow, Joel Lang, and Jenifer Frank

Rich MacAllister Session II 9/22/11 “ How the North Promoted, Prolonged and Profited from Slavery” by Anne Farrow, Joel Lang, and Jenifer Frank Unfortunately a major part of America’s young history is the institution of slavery. It is a topic that is whispered in classrooms and blame for the atrocity is often tossed back and forth between the States. Furthermore, is the lack of responsibility and ownership the Northern states and its educators place into the hands of those who profited behind the scenes. “How the North Promoted, Prolonged and Profited from Slavery”, provides a rare look at the role northern states played in Americans most controversial and lucrative business. For many years leading up to the Civil War, New York had been the nucleus of the slave industry. Some of America’s most notable figures developed their wealth through the use of slavery in some form. Lehman Brothers gained financial ground by helping to develop the New York Cotton Exchange. Junius Morgan, father of J.P. Morgan was a cotton broker and banker out of London and Massachusetts. John Jacob Astor of the Waldorf‐Astoria outfitted his ships for slave trade and rented them out as carriers of cotton. Charles L. Tiffany used his father money made in cotton mills to establish his store of luxury items. Even Archibald Gracie, whos mansion is used as the home for the major of New York, made his money shipping cotton from plantations to the south to the mills in New York and in Massachusetts. As abolitionists become more vocal with their cause, New York Mayor Wood proposed succession and felt the United States Constitution and its protection of citizens property actually supported the institution of slavery. Whether or not he believed this, Wood did recognize New York’s potential to grow through the slave trade. As succession seemingly became more inevitable wealthy New York businessmen organized under the lead of Richard Lathers to attempt a compromise with the Southern States. Despite their pleas no agreement was made. Even with the promise of a Civil War, New York didn’t slow down their involvement in the cotton trade. The city soon created “Sailing Packets”, shuttles that assured the business world on both sides of the Atlantic of regular delivery of goods, which was the brain child of Jeremiah Thompson. His ships would leave, full of cotton, at regular intervals promising merchants of accurate and continuous delivery. Instead of sailing cotton directly out of the Southern ports, it was taken off in New York, then placed on European bound ships. This made it so New York had control over the shipping industry and was able to make a profit when goods were consistently unloaded and then reloaded at their docks. New York quickly became the center of trade in the America’s and it wasn’t uncommon to see southerners vacationing there to acquire goods, textiles or create business transactions. Behind just London and Paris, New York became the wealthiest city in the western world. New York today is one of the worlds most intriguing vacation destinations. I know when presenting this information to my students they become shocked and disappointed to hear that one of out nations, and the worlds, most profitably cities got its start from the business of slavery. New York wasn’t the only state in the north to benefit from the use of slaves. Massachusetts quickly dominated the textile industry in North American and with the support of mills in Rhode Island made up just over 50% of America’s textiles. Built by Amos and Abbott Lawrence, Lowell became a marvel of northern engineering. Since Samuel Slater and Moses Brown brought over the first textile mill to Francis Cabot Lowell memorizing England’s textile factory designs, Massachusetts dominated the textile industry. The wealthy owners and investors of Massachusetts merged together to create the “Boston Associates”, an organization designed to protect the interests of the textile industries and ensure the profits of slavery would remain in Massachusetts. The “Associates” were made up of about 80 members, controlled local wealth by investing in new businesses, railways, banks and controlled a little over 40% of all insurance capital. Combined, the Association employed tens of thousands, donated to Harvard and Williams College and helped fund the origins of Massachusetts General Hospital. Massachusetts was so highly invested in the slave trade that during the American Revolution sugar and molasses communities in the British West Indies, who relied on Massachusetts’ textiles and crops, went hungry. Massachusetts is viewed as a very liberal and accepting state. It is important for students to recognize that not everything in history is black and white, and that despite the North fighting against the pro slave Southerners in the Civil War, many in Massachusetts were racists and some of our states most prized entities revolve around slavery. I was able to cut out snippets from this book and present them to my students to prove to them that society as a whole looked down upon blacks, even if they were abolitionists. Unfortunately, in the north we glorify our accomplishments but without understanding the harsh reality of our destructive behavior which created out wealth. The West Indies also heavily relied on the merchants from Connecticut and Rhode Island. Connecticut had a unique indirect relationship with the slave trade. Ivory out of Africa’s east coast was a profitable material. Connecticut based companies like Read, Pratt and Co. and Comstock, Cheney and Co. purchased Ivory tusks taken from African elephants. The tusks were carried to the coast by enslaved Africans, who were then often taken and brought to America with the tusks. David Livingston, who had lived in Africa as a medical missionary, claimed that for every tusk brought to Connecticut, five slaves were impacted or killed. His estimates, based on Connecticut’s records show over one millions Africans were directly impacted by this trade. Rhode Islands also played a fairly dominant role in the slave trade industry. Many businessmen who traded rum, invested in slavery or were members of the cotton exchanged helped create the thriving shipping town of Newport. The elite created an organization called the “Fellowship Club”. Similar to the “Boston Associates, they invested in local businesses and helped turn Rhode Island into a thriving state. Two of its more notable citizens were John and Moses Brown. John Brown was known as the “Providence Colossus”. He was a shrewd investor, congressman and creator of Brown University. His fellow businessmen, James DeWolf was equally successful. DeWolf was a wealthy Senator who was known for his cruel treatment of slaves aboard is merchant ships. Reports of him cutting off hands and feet of the sick, before dumping them over board were common, or tying the sick to chairs so they couldn’t stay afloat. His cruel acts were often a demonstration to his cargo as a warning not to rebel. John Brown unfortunately lacked the same control aboard his ships. His hired Captain Hopkins suffered a terrible revolt and lost over half his cargo. Revolts weren’t uncommon and as the slave trade became more lucrative, stricter measures were taken to maintain order. At one point, DeWolf was accused to cheating the government out of taxes and his ship was auctioned off. John Brown bought off the auctioneers, allowing one of DeWolfs partners to buy the ship back for pennies on the dollar. Illegal activities were not uncommon among the businessmen of Rhode Island. Both Brown and DeWolf avoided the customs collectors who controlled their districts. President Jefferson even allowed one of DeWolfs former Captains, Charles Collins to be tax collector in his district, allowing for DeWolf and Brown to monopolize the ports of Rhode Island. It wasn’t until DeWolf became Senator and pushed for abolition, that southerners like William Smith accused him of being a hypocrite, having made his fortune through the slave industry. Despite John Browns activities as a slave trader, his brother Moses Brown attempted to reduce the slave trade and was an avid abolitionists. Even with his constant criticism of his brother John, Moses may have done even more to fuel the slave industry by helping to bring the textile industries to America, creating a greater need for cotton and a stronger need for the slave trade. Also seemingly ironic was the results of Eli Whitney's cotton gin. Although his intentions were good, his machine took the process of cleaning 1lb of cotton a day by hand, now allowed for one man to clean 50lbs of cotton in a day. This increase allowed southerners to to expand their land, which unfortunately meant increasing the amount of slaves needed per plantation. Not all of the involvement from your northern states were “behind the scenes” through trade and commerce. Much of northern involvement was direct with harsh outcomes. One of our greater accounts of the life of a norther slave was that of Venture Smith. He was born Broteer Furro in west Africa and was held captive by a neighboring tribe. His family never paid his ransom and he was put on a ship to be sent to Rhode Island. Once in America, he was purchased by Roberson Mumford. After changing hands a few times he found himself on Fishers Island in New York. Venture's accounts show he was often tied up with cattle and when he broke rules, was regularly beaten. He once grabbed the whip out of his masters wife's hand when he witnessed an “unacceptable” beating on another slave. Venture was beaten by his master and masters brother, then robbed of his money he had been saving to possibly purchase his own freedom.

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