Outfitting the Slave Ship SALLY

Lesson developed by The Tracing Center on Histories and Legacies of Slavery, in collaboration with The Rhode Island Historical Society.

www.rihs.org. www.tracingcenter.org. 8/11

Who was involved in preparing a Rhode Island ship for a voyage to Africa to procure captured Africans for sale in the United States and Caribbean?

Overview: This activity, Outfitting the Slave Ship Sally, is a short in-class activity suitable for middle and

high school students, though easily adapted for older and younger groups—in and out of the

classroom. The objective of this lesson is to:

(1) familiarize participants with many of the people and materials needed to prepare a

ship for a slave trading voyage in the eighteenth century and

(2) to illustrate in a physical way the web of complicity from farms to the sea in the

global enterprise of the slave trade.

Materials Needed: -List of ―Outfitting the SALLY‖

-Numbered cards cut apart

-Long length of yarn that can reach all participants and cover spaces in between (will depend

upon space and number of students)

-Large enough space for participants to stand in a circle

Process: 1. Cut cards provided with this lesson into individual sections 2. Shuffle deck 3. Explain to them that preparing a voyage of a slave ship was not an individual endeavor,

but involved an entire community and they are going to see how the web of complicity

was made.

4. Pass out to participants (one card each, double up if don’t have enough people) 5. Ask them to get into a large circle and keep the card with them – make sure they stand in

a random order.

6. Leader should have the yarn at this point and leader will act as ―runner‖ or should assign a student to the task

7. Each card is numbered; ask the students to read them off in numeric order (not how they are standing, but according to the number on the individual card)

8. Give the student who is reading the yarn and ask then to grab hold of it and not let go to their ―point‖ in the yarn.

9. When the next student reads, have the ―runner‖ hand the yarn to the next person 10. A ―web‖ will begin to develop 11. Proceed in this way until you exhaust the list 12. Discuss what they see

The Voyage of the SALLY

The voyage of the SALLY (1764-1765) was an example of what eighteenth-century New

Englanders called "the triangle trade." Rum-laden Rhode Island ships sailed to Africa and

acquired cargoes of Africans, who were carried to the plantation colonies of the Caribbean and

sold. The ships returned home with holds filled with sugar and molasses, which was distilled

into rum – Newport alone possessed nearly two dozen rum distilleries – and shipped to Africa

to produce more slaves, more sugar, and more rum. In the century before 1807, roughly

100,000 Africans were carried into New World slavery on Rhode Island ships, most to the

Caribbean.

The SALLY's voyage stands out for several reasons. Not only is it the best-documented Rhode

Island slaving venture, but it was also one of the deadliest. The timing of the voyage was also

significant. The year 1764 marked the beginning of the crisis between Great Britain and its

thirteen mainland North American colonies, a crisis prompted by Parliament's attempt to

collect a duty on Caribbean sugar.

By the standards of Rhode Island merchants, the Brown brothers were not major slave traders,

but they were not strangers to the business either. While a few Rhode Island families [like the

DeWolfs] made substantial fortunes in the African slave trade, the real story of the Rhode

Island slave trade is not of a few great fortunes but of extremely broad patterns of participation

and profit. Even with the inevitable gaps in the historical record, it is possible to identify some

seven hundred eighteenth-century Rhode Islanders who owned or captained slave ships. Some

merchants even sold shares in slaving voyages, much as we today buy and sell stocks.

Even those who did not invest directly in the slave trade often depended on it for their

livelihoods. Preparing and equipping a slave ship for the long trip to Africa took weeks and

consumed the energies of an entire community. Local sail lofts and ropewalks prepared canvas

and rigging. Caulkers and smiths sealed and sheathed hulls. Distilleries churned out the high-

proof New England rum for which Rhode Island ships were famous on the African coast.

Farmers supplied flour, beef, tobacco, and onions. Bakers supplied bread. Even the local

apothecary contributed, supplying a variety of ointments and elixirs for the ship's medicine

chest.

In addition to being brutal and inhumane, slave trading was also a complex, competitive

business, which put a premium on experience and knowledge of local conditions on the African

coast. Having decided to send the SALLY, the Brown brothers first offered the ship to William

Earle, who had commanded their previous African venture, the WHEEL OF FORTUNE, in

1759. But Earle declined, having already accepted the command of another Africa-bound ship.

Joseph Wanton, a Newport merchant and experienced slave ship captain, offered his services, but

the Browns instead offered command to their friend Esek Hopkins. Hopkins had commanded

privateers during the recent war with France, but he had no experience in the slave trade. This

lack of experience would prove a substantial liability, as Wanton warned.

Hopkins assembled a crew of fifteen men. The standard privilege for a slave ship captain was

"four on a hundred and four" – for every hundred and four slaves delivered alive, the captain

could sell four on his own account. Hopkins was offered a more liberal privilege: ten barrels

of rum on the outbound journey, and ten slaves on the return. The SALLY's crew included one

"Negro boy" – Edward Abbey, Hopkins's slave.

When the SALLY sailed, Hopkins opened an account book, in which he carefully recorded

every shipboard transaction, including wages advanced to crewmen, trading for supplies, and

the purchase of 196 Africans. He acquired his first slaves on November 15, a few days after

the SALLY's arrival on the African coast, trading 156 gallons of rum and a barrel of flour to

the captain of another slave ship for two Africans, "1 boy" and "1 garle." Initially, he

accounted purchases in pounds and shillings, but he soon adopted the custom of the coast,

recording transactions in "barrs." A barr was literally a bar of iron, but it was also a monetary

equivalent – thus a yard of cloth was valued at one bar, a barrel of rum at ten bars, English and

French guns at five and six bars, respectively, and so forth. Slaves could be worth anything

from seventy to one hundred and thirty bars, depending on their age, sex, and health.

While slave ships typically worked their way along the African coast, the SALLY appears to

have most of its time in one place, near the mouth of the Grande River, in what is today

Guinea-Bissau. Judging from the account book, the SALLY operated as a kind of rum

dispensary, supplying passing slave ships with the rum they needed to conduct business on the

coast and receiving in exchange manufactured goods like cloth, iron, and guns, all of which

were important trade goods. Slaves tricked in one or two at a time, acquired from other slave

ship captains, from British and Afro-Portuguese traders operating in the area, and from the

local African king. Occasionally, Hopkins dispatched a boat to Geba, an inland trading center

with an active slave market. On June 8, 1765, a boat returned from Geba with ten slaves,

bringing the total number of purchases to 118 Africans. That same day, Hopkins recorded the

death of a woman slave who "hanged her Self between Decks." She was the second African to

die on the ship. By August 20, the SALLY's last day on the coast, the death toll had risen to

nineteen. A twentieth captive, a "woman all Most dead" was left behind when the ship sailed.

The SALLY was in Africa for more than nine months, an exceptionally long time for a slave

ship to remain on the coast. In that time, Hopkins purchased a total of 196 enslaved Africans.

Nineteen of those people died before the ship left the coast, and a twentieth was left for dead

on the day the ship sailed. Hopkins had also sold at least twenty-one Africans to other traders,

bringing his total "cargo" to about 155 men, women, and children.

The SALLY embarked on its return journey on August 21, 1765. In the first week at sea, four

more Africans—a woman, two boys, and a girl—died. On the seventh day out, the surviving

captives staged an insurrection, an episode noted in a terse entry in Hopkins's account book:

"Slaves Rose on us was obliged fire on them and Destroyed 8 and Several more wounded

badly 1 thye & 1 Ribs broke." According to the account Hopkins gave to the Brown brothers,

the slaves became "so Desperited" after the failed insurrection that "Some Drowned them

Selves Some Starved and Others Sickened & Dyed." By the time Hopkins reached the island

of Antigua in the West Indies, another sixty-eight Africans had perished. Twenty more died in

the days after the ship's arrival, before they could be sold.

On October 9, Hopkins wrote to the Browns from Antigua, reporting his arrival and losses.

The news was a devastating blow to the heavily indebted Browns, but they consoled

themselves with the knowledge that their friend Hopkins had survived. "We need not mention

how Disagreeable the Nuse of your Lusing 3 of yr Hands and 88 Slaves is to us & all your

friends," they wrote, "but your Self Continuing in Helth is so grate Satisfaction to us, that we

Remain Contented under the Heavy Loss of our Int[erests]."

The SALLY's first port of call in the West Indies was Barbados, where Hopkins expected to

find instructions from the Browns advising him on where to dispose of his cargo and what to

acquire in exchange. The Browns had sent several such letters to the island, but none of them

seems to have reached Hopkins, who proceeded to the island of Antigua. At least twenty more

Africans died in Antigua before they could be sold, bringing total mortality on the voyage to

108. A 109th captive, probably one of the "likely lads" the Browns had asked Hopkins to bring

back to Providence, died en route to Rhode Island.

Aside from the few Africans brought to Providence, all of the surviving captives off the

SALLY were sold in Antigua. Sickly and emaciated after their long ordeal, they commanded

very low prices at auction. Of the sixty-one captives for whom sale records can be found, only

two were marketed as "prime" slaves, selling for £50 each. Other captives sold for as little as

£5, an indication of their desperate physical condition. So disappointing were the returns that

one of the slave traders handling the sales expressed his condolences to the Browns. "I am

truly Sorry for the Bad Voyage," he wrote. "[H]ad the Negroes been young and Healthy I

should have been able to sell them pretty well. I make no doubt if you was to try this Markett

again with Good Slaves I Should be able to give you Satisfaction."

In the wake of the SALLY's voyage, three of the four Brown brothers—Nicholas, Joseph, and

Moses—never again directly participated in the transatlantic slave trade. Their decision

appears to have been motivated less by moral qualms than by simple financial calculation.

Between the loss of the WHEEL OF FORTUNE in 1759 and the SALLY debacle five years

later, they had good reason to believe that slave trading was too risky. Their decision did not

prevent them from continuing to traffic in slave-produced goods or from supplying other

merchants who were mounting African voyages, including their brother John, who launched

another ship to Africa in 1769. In all, John sponsored at least four transatlantic slaving

voyages after the SALLY, in 1769, 1785, 1786, and 1795.1

1 The Voyage of the Sally site is a collaborative project developed by the Brown University Scholarly Technology Group, working with the Center for Digital Initiatives, the John Carter Brown Library, and Professor James Campbell. http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/sally/

Primary Documents Details from these and other documents were used in creating the activity list. These

documents, and the entire “Voyage of the Slave Ship SALLY collection, can be found online at: http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/sally/.

―Providence September 11 1764

Invoice of Sundry Merchandise

Shipt on bord the brigantine SALLY Esek

Hopkins

Master bound for the Coast of Africa

by Nichs Brown & Co. which Goc on their

account J Presque Consignd to the said Master‖

Manifest of the brig SALLY

Outfitting the SALLY

1. Investors provided financial backing for voyage – Nicholas Brown and Company (the four Brown brothers = Nicholas, John, Moses, and Joseph) 2. 185 barrels of Rum – from a Newport, RI distiller (approx 17,275 gallons)

3. 30 casks of bread – from George Gibbs, Newport baker

4. 1 large iron pot

5. Sailmakers – Robert Bell of Providence

6. 1,800 onions

7. 51 loaves of sugar

8. 40 barrels of flour (approx. 200lbs each)

9. 10 hogshead of tobacco (approx. 1000lbs each)

10. 15 crew members – includes Esek Hopkins (master), Sam Ward (“fore the mast”), James York (mate), Abraham Hawkins (carpenter), Edward Abbie (“negrow boy,” enslaved to Hopkins)

11. 40 handcuffs and 40 shackles

12. 7 swivel guns

13. 96 lbs of coffee

14. 300 iron hoops

15. 30 boxes of whale wax candles – from the Brown family’s candleworks in Providence

16. 25 casks of rice

17. Medical Supplies – from Jabez Bowen Jr. of Providence

18. 24 barrels of beef

19. Ship Caulkers – Joshua Smith of Providence

20. Sheeting the brigantine’s hull – William Cookoe of Providence

1.

Investors provided financial backing for voyage – Nicholas Brown and Company (the four Brown brothers = Nicholas, John, Moses,

and Joseph)

2.

185 barrels of Rum – from a Newport, RI distiller (approx. 17,275 gallons)

3.

30 casks of bread – from George Gibbs, Newport baker

4. 1 large iron pot

6. 1,800 onions

In the eighteenth and nineteenth century, the towns of Whethersfield, Connecticut and Bristol, Rhode Island led the way in onion production. Onions were used for many medicinal purposes. Some of them include cough relief during colds and use as poultices for drawing poisons from wounds and ulcers. Onion poultices were used on the soles of the feet to reduce high fevers or placed on the chest to relieve congestion. One ancient remedy included onion tea to relieve cholera, fevers, and headaches, as well as being treatments for gout, arthritis, soothing burns, and speeding healing. It is now believed that the Vitamin C content of the onions helped sailors fight off scurvy, thus known as an “antiscorbutic,” which explains why ships carried so many.

5.

Sailmakers – Robert Bell of Providence

7. 51 loaves of sugar

Sugar was a highly prized commodity of the 18th century and it is most likely that the Browns

would have had access to great quanitities of sugar grown in the West Indies.

8. 40 barrels of flour (approx. 200lbs each)

9. 10 hogshead of tobacco (approx. 1000lbs each)

Beginning in the 17thcentury, Bristish colonists were growing shade, or Indian, tobacco, in

Connecticut, particularly near the town of Enfield, in what is now known as the Tobacco Valley.

This tobacco was not as prized as that from the West Indies, particularly Cuba. But, in 1762 a

Connecticut man began growing Cuban tobacco in the colony. It is not known if the Browns

would have shipped shade tobacco on the SALLY, if the Cuban tobacco crops would have had

time enough to grow in Connecticut to be shipped, or if instead they were shipping Cuban

tobacco from the West Indian island, with which they were already trading heavily.

10.

15 crew members – includes Esek Hopkins (master), Sam Ward

(“fore the mast”), James York (mate), Abraham Hawkins

(carpenter), Edward Abbie (“negrow boy”)

(Admiral Esek Hopkins)

11. 40 handcuffs and 40 shackles

12. 7 swivel guns

Swivel guns were found on most ships of this period. Sailors could pivot these small, mounted cannons to fend off pirates and other attackers. On slave ships they could also be used against slave risings and insurrections, as happened on the SALLY.

14. 300 iron hoops

Iron hoops like these were used to lash around wooden staves to make barrels.

Abraham Hawkins, the carpenter, was on board and could fashion more wood, but

iron hoops would have to be made before the journey.

13. 96 lbs of coffee

This is an image of an 18th century coffee husking machine, or “piladora.” Machines like this

were used in Puerto Rico and throughout the West Indies and South America where coffee was

grown and exported.

15. 30 boxes of whale wax candles – from the Brown

family’s candleworks in Providence

The substance for the candles comes from a wax found in the head cavities of a species of whales.

The Brown’s brother-in-law, John Vanderlight, had perfected a technique for making the candles

and the Brown’s used this method at their candleworks. The whales likely came from the

whalers on Nantucket.

16. 25 casks of rice

Rice was brought to North America by European colonists in 1694. It soon became

Georgia’s staple crop; South Carolina was second in rates of production. Because of

the Brown’s network related to the provisioning, or West Indies, trade, they would

have been able to trade for this grain along the Atlantic coast.

17. Medical Supplies – from Jabez Bowen Jr. of Providence

Slave ships needed to have either a doctor or medical equipment on board every ship. The

African coast was a dangerous place for sailors. There was always the threat of insurrection, but

there were also many diseases rampant, such as malaria, Yellow Fever, and dysentery. The huge,

British slave ships would have a doctor on board, but the smaller Rhode Island ships would

simply carry a medicine chest that contained necessities, like laudanum (a mixture of rum and

opium) and calomel (mercury chloride). These drugs would be used to treat crew and, perhaps, contagious captives.

18. 24 barrels of beef

Meat in general, and beef in particular, was more available to people in the North

American colonies than it was in Europe. For use on ships, the beef would most

likely be dried, made into jerky, and put in barrels. South County in Rhode Island

was a leading producer of cattle and dairy cows during this period.

19.

Ship Caulkers – Joshua Smith of Providence

Oakum, fibers (often from unraveled ropes) covered in tar, would be used by men

called “caulkers” to caulk, or pack, the joints of timber in a wooden vessel to make it

water tight and, therefore, seaworthy.

20. Sheeting the brigantine’s hull – William Cookoe of

Providence

Copper was used to cover the hulls of ships, the area most thoroughly submerged in water. The

copper protected the wood from rot and also made the boat much less attractive to marine life,

such as barnacles, that would normally attach themselves to vessels.

In West Africa, people often named their children for the day of their birth, boys born on

Wednesday were often named Quacko. It is very possible, therefore, that “Cookoe” is a

corruption of this West African name and this man was of African descent.