1720-1807: A small number of ports in Rhode Island, specifically Newport, Bristol, and Providence, accounted for about half of all slaving voyages from the N…

1720-1807: A small number of ports in Rhode Island, specifically Newport, Bristol, and Providence, accounted for about half of all slaving voyages from the North American mainland. These merchants typically employed much smaller vessels than was common in the international trade. Their primary trade commodity was rum, which was used to purchase captives at the Gold Coast forts of Anomabu and Cape Coast Castle. Captives were sold throughout British America before the Revolution and across the wider Atlantic world after 1783.