[The_Media_never_lie]

Since Massachusetts was one of the first states to abolish slavery, it’s easy to forget that there were slaves in Massachusetts at one time.

Didn't the shipping industry in Massachusetts thrive by being involved in the importing of slaves?

[Verginius Rufus]

Yes, during the colonial period, there was a lot of "triangular trade" which involved rum from New England being shipped to Africa to purchase slaves, who were taken to the West Indies where they were exchanged for sugar or molasses which was then taken to New England to be made into rum.

I think that was part of the reason why Jefferson's clause in the Declaration of Independence blaming the king for the slave trade was cut out, because the delegates from the North were conscious of their own involvement in the slave trade.

[nopardons]

Yes.

[Ditto]

Didn't the shipping industry in Massachusetts thrive by being involved in the importing of slaves?

Way over emphasized by the neo-confederate propagandists.

Before the American Revolution was strictly in the hands of British owned slave ships. During the Revolution, the British ships obviously quit sailing to Massachusetts, and during that war, in 1780, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania banned the further importation of slaves into their states.

After the war ended American vessels began sailing to West Africa in the slave trade, mostly sailing from Newport RI. and New York. Their markets for those slaves were mostly in the Caribbean, South America, and the American South, specifically Charleston. By 1808, it was illegal for any American registered vessel to carry slaves in international commerce (obviously violated) but it was considered an act of piracy.

But the short answer is that the vast majority of slaves in the US came on British ships before the Revolution.