Caribbean trade began very early. From 1630 –1640 at least 20 ships sailed from New England to Barbados, the Bahamas, St. Kitts and Tortuga.
Men in Barbados “are so intent upon planting sugar that they had rather buy foode at very dear rates than produce it by labour, so infinite is the profit of sugar works.”
- Advice to Governor John Winthrop, 1647
”
- Columbia
Feast to Famine
Molasses, for the production of rum, was imported from Caribbean plantations. English planters on Barbados and other islands maximized production of sugar cane while importing food and other essentials from mainland colonies including Massachusetts. When Britain cut off trade with these islands after the American Revolution a famine struck Jamaica.
RUMINATIONS
The production of rum was very profitable. New
Englanders consumed a million and a quarter
gallons of rum each year— the equivalent of four
gallons for every man woman and child. Rum also
played a central role in the African slave trade.
Cutting sugar cane on Barbados . . .
- Sideplayer
Variations in the Slave Trade
Some traders sailed directly to Africa in the
famous triangular trade. In one version rum
went to Africa, slaves to Caribbean plantations, and molasses to New England. Some
Massachusetts merchants bought smaller
numbers of slaves in the West Indies. They
often arrived on ships with other imports
like sugar, molasses, or tobacco. Because
plantations were not practical in Massachusetts fewer slaves were purchased. Some,
who were considered too weak for Caribbean plantations, were re-sold to Massachusetts as house servants
Phillis Wheatley
Phillis Wheatley was taken from Africa at the age of 7or 8. She was named for the ship that brought her to Massachusetts (“Phillis” or “The Charming Phillis”) owned by merchant Timothy Fitch of Medford. Her book of poetry was the first to be authored by an African-American.
- Library of Congress
Cold Cash.
In this 1797 petition David Jeffries protests the cost of importing slaves from Jamaica. Apparently he had paid for five individuals and received a mother with four young children. “Your petitioner was forced to pay four pounds per head for their transportation which your petitioner thinks very hard…the children were not worth the money.”
- Massachusetts Archives