[Twodees]

Hmmm, three ships per year....Michael Bellesiles wouldn't happen to be the author, would he? ;-)

[William Tell]

Twodees said: "Hmmm, three ships per year....Michael Bellesiles wouldn't happen to be the author, would he? ;-)"

No, but my memory of the quote is flawed as to context.

The passage is from "From Lexington to Liberty" by Bruce Lancaster, Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1955.

   It may be mentioned here that the long-cherished
   "African triangle" - that is, New England ships 
   bringing molasses from the West Indies to be made 
   into rum to be carried to Africa for the purchase of
   slaves to be sold in the West India market for more
   molasses to be made into more rum to purchase more
   slaves, etc. - seems to belong to legend.  Recent
   studies made by Charles H. P. Copeland of the Peabody
   Museum of Salem show that the Massachusetts slave
   trade averaged less than one ship a year over a 
   period of more than a century prior to the Revolution.

I am by no means an expert in the history of the slave trade, but what I have read would indicate that there would not have been a tremendous market for slaves in New England and little incentive to deliver them there for transport elsewhere.

My own understanding is:

   Great Britain     has: manufactured goods   needs: rum,sugar,wood,tobacco,cotton
   New England       has: rum, wood            needs: sugar, manufactured goods
   the Old South     has: tobacco,cotton       needs: slaves,manufactured goods
   West Indies       has: tobacco, sugar       needs: slaves,manufactured goods
   Africa            has: slaves(people)       needs: rum, manufactured goods,tobacco

The "triangle" which I see involving New England is:

   Take rum and (imported) manufactured goods to Africa
   Take slaves to West Indies
   Take sugar to New England

The reliance on sugar imported from the West Indies which is being cultivated by slaves certainly creates a dependence in New England on the slave trade.

Now that I have done this exercise, it would seem that the author's claim is ambiguous. Much depends on what he classifies as "the slave trade" in New England. The issue should be whether the ship routinely carries slaves, not whether the ship delivers slaves to New England.

Perhaps some Freeper with access to the Peabody Museum of Salem can research this detail further.