Early Days on Nantucket 57 



sufficed. At other times the trader had to give 

 goods costing as much as 12. The margin at 

 worst was large. Then because the negroes were 

 generally sold in the West Indies, and a cargo 

 was brought thence to the home port, another 

 profit was secured. 



Rum was the best cargo taken to the black 

 coasts for trade, and it is an interesting fact that 

 while the Nantucket people were developing the 

 whale fishery, their neighbors in Rhode Island 

 were developing especial skill as distillers of 

 molasses. Rhode Islanders were noted for their 

 ability to make a gallon of rum from a gallon of 

 molasses, and in consequence of their superior 

 distilling they soon had a long lead in the slave 

 trade. As is pointed out in The American Slave 

 Trade, "Rhode Island had 150 vessels in the 

 African slave trade in 1770." 



In the cod fishery of the seventeenth century 

 the ship owners took half the catch, the crew 

 dividing the other half. Later the owner had to 

 be content with only a fifth, if he were to get a 

 crew for his ship, and thereafter the thrifty crews 

 had opportunity to become owners. 



