AND WE THOUGHT THE SLAVES WERE IN THE SOUTH..

AND WE THOUGHT THE SLAVES WERE IN THE SOUTH..

While searching for some information on something else, I came across this ..  Being I was born and raised in the Newport, R.I. area, it was of interest to me..   As all the time growing up.. I did not ever hear of this..    I heard there was a rich man’s house that was near the waterfront of the bay… which there was a tunnel under ground to the house and buildings he had. Used by rum runners… to go to the man’s property without notice.  I did hear something about it later in life..  That it was the tunnel to bring in slaves,  to take out rum.  But in my time of living there, I never saw the tunnel opening.. Even tho Mom and Dad had a boat. But we rarely went up bay, we went out towards the ocean and over to Jamestown.   Anyway..  like my title says… WE THOUGHT SLAVES WERE IN THE SOUTH..

So read this and see what you think..  maybe google it. I did. 

 

Slave trade[edit]

Newport was a major center of the slave trade in colonial and early America, active in the "triangle trade" in which slave-produced sugar and molasses from the Caribbean were carried to Rhode Island and distilled into rum that was then carried to West Africa and exchanged for captives. In 1764, Rhode Island had about 30 rum distilleries, 22 in Newport alone.

Slaves were trafficked illegally into Rhode Island, breaking a 1787 law prohibiting residents of the state from trading in slaves. Slave traders were also breaking federal statutes of 1794 and 1800 barring Americans from carrying slaves to ports outside the United States, as well as the 1807 Congressional act abolishing the transatlantic slave trade.

A few Rhode Island families made substantial fortunes in the trade. William and Samuel Vernon were Newport merchants who later played an important role in financing the creation of the United States Navy; they sponsored 30 African slaving ventures. However, it was the DeWolfs of Bristol, Rhode Island, and most notably James De Wolf, who were the largest slave-trading family in America, mounting more than 80 transatlantic voyages, most of them illegal. The Rhode Island slave trade was broadly based. Seven hundred Rhode Islanders owned or captained slave ships, most of whom were substantial merchants, though many were ordinary shopkeepers and tradesmen who purchased shares in slaving voyages.^[17]

Newport was inhabited by a small group of abolitionists and free blacks. Reverend Samuel Hopkins, minister at Newport's First Congregational Church, has been called "America's first abolitionist".^[18] Among subscribers to Hopkins' writings were 17 free black citizens, most of whom lived in Newport.^[18] This community of freemen, including Newport Gardner, founded the Free African Union Society in 1780, the first African mutual aid society in America.^[19]