Transatlantic slave‑trading network centred in colonial and early‑national Rhode Island
Rhode Island merchants dominated mainland North American participation in the Atlantic slave trade, sponsoring over 934 voyages and transporting more than 106,000 enslaved Africans between 1709 and 1807.
Key Facts
- Slaving voyages sponsored
- At least 934 voyages
- Enslaved Africans transported
- Estimated 106,544 people
- Active period
- c. 1709–1807
- Peak mainland share
- Over 90% of all mainland voyages in some years
- Key trade commodity
- Rhode Island-distilled rum exchanged for captives in West Africa
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
Rhode Island's economy became deeply integrated with Caribbean sugar plantations through a triangular trade: Caribbean molasses was imported, distilled into rum locally, and that rum was used as currency to purchase enslaved Africans on the West African coast. The colony's small agricultural base made maritime commerce and slave-linked trades economically central.
Between roughly 1709 and 1807, Rhode Island merchants organized and financed at least 934 slaving voyages to Africa, making the colony—despite being the smallest of the original thirteen—the dominant mainland North American participant in the Atlantic slave trade, accounting for more than 90 percent of such voyages in peak years.
The trade generated substantial wealth concentrated among Rhode Island's merchant class and shaped the colony's financial and maritime infrastructure. It also entrenched Rhode Island's role in the broader Atlantic economy, while the forced transportation of over 106,000 Africans contributed to the expansion of enslaved labor across the Caribbean and mainland American colonies.