James DeWolf and the Rhode Island Slave Trade by Cynthia Mestad Johnson

Author:Cynthia Mestad Johnson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2014-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Collins’s first home (1780) was modest compared to the mansion he built twenty-five years later using illicit income. Photo taken by author.

Collins’s home built in 1805 with proceeds from the slave trade, as DeWolf’s business partner and Bristol’s customhouse collector. Photo taken by author.

Rhode Island slavers found that they could now take advantage of the new collector by sailing upstream, past Newport, into Narragansett Bay, arriving at the port of Bristol without the threat of being questioned about their professional motives.240 If a threat arose that made it necessary for a DeWolf vessel to sail under Spanish colors, Collector Collins arranged a fabricated sale of the ship to his personal Cuban agent.241 DeWolf not only had an extra set of eyes watching out for his fleet in Bristol, but he also had the opportunity to continue sailing under the Spanish flag if he felt it was necessary, always staying a step ahead of authorities.

Evidence shows that ships sailing in and out of the port of Bristol headed for the coast of Africa more than doubled after Collins’s appointment. This was true for DeWolf, too, as he logged twenty-one voyages between 1799 and 1803 under the first collector and at least forty-two from 1804 until the end of the year in 1807, more than doubling his profits. DeWolf continued to circumvent slave trade laws with ease. From this moment, there were no more documented attempts at prosecutions in Rhode Island for breaking the law on trading slaves until the end of 1807.242

Despite the ratification of the Act of 1800, Bristol remained one of the top three slave trade ports in America, yet it does not find itself in a prominent place in the history of the United States. Along with Newport, Bristol exported slaves to the active port of Charleston, South Carolina, well past the end of 1807. Many pages of DeWolf’s correspondence would confirm a much later date before it stopped.243

William Ellery vainly attempted to work with his new collector in Bristol. Ellery again sent correspondence, this time to Collins, regarding a vessel preparing to evade the embargo that originated from his port. Ellery’s correspondence stated that it was reported that many crew members were told to say goodbye to their families and did not know when they would return. The crew members also neglected to discuss where they would be traveling to and for what purpose. The only additional information given was the name of the vessel: Sally. Although there were multiple vessels named Sally, there was only one known from the port of Bristol; it was owned by DeWolf’s nephew George and financially backed by DeWolf. Ellery then concluded in his letter that he would advise Collins to be certain not to allow any vessel to depart from Bristol without verifying the ballast and then collecting a bond to ensure that the voyage was of legal nature. A legal bond issued by Collins as collector was not uncommon. However, the vessels that routinely received these bonds were small

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