Let me elaborate a bit so you can see the broader economic and moral landscape of New England maritime capitalism between roughly 1770 and 1830:

⚓️ 1. The Triangular and Atlantic Slave Trade (Africa & Caribbean)

• In the late 18th century, many New England merchants—especially in Rhode Island (Newport, Bristol, Providence)—made fortunes from the transatlantic slave trade.

• Rhode Island alone was responsible for 60–70% of all U.S. slave voyages before the trade was outlawed in 1808.

• Ships carried rum and manufactured goods to West Africa, exchanged them for enslaved Africans, and brought captives to the Caribbean or the American South, returning home with sugar, molasses, and coffee.

• Key players: the DeWolf family of Bristol, the Vernon family of Newport, and the Brown family of Providence.