Who profited most from the Slave Trade?
" Our race is the Master Race. We are divine gods on this planet. We are as different from the inferior races as they are from insects. In fact, compared to our race, other races are beasts and animals, cattle at best. Other races are considered as human excrement. Our destiny is to rule over the inferior races. Our earthly kingdom will be ruled by our leader with a rod of iron. The masses will lick our feet and serve us as our slaves."
— Menachem Begin - Israeli Prime Minister 1977–1983
It doesn't take a Jew long to discover what his brothers are doing, so a group of Jews settled in Charleston, South Carolina, where they set up distilleries for making rum and whiskey. They, too, learned that they could trade with the natives on the West Coast of Africa for ivory, and several ships were purchased and sent to Africa, trading the usual glass beads and other cheap ornaments for ivory, which, however, took up but little space on board ship. It occurred to these Jew traders that they could supply the plantations in the South with 'Black ivory', needed under swampy and malarial conditions which European labor could not tolerate without sickness, and which would not only fill the holds of their ships, but bring enormous profits. (This same group had earlier tried selling Indians as slaves but they found them completely unsatisfactory, as the Indians would not tolerate this type of work.) Thus, another segment of the slave trading had become active and profitable out of Charleston, South Carolina. Several shiploads of Black slaves were sent by the Dutch West Indies Company to Manhattan.
During this time there were a number of plantation owners established in the West Indies and two Jews, Eyrger and SayUer, with strong Rothschild connections in Spain, formed an agency called ASIENTO, which later operated in Holland and England. It was through these connections that Jews in Holland and England exerted influence and both of these connections cooperated in helping the Jews provide Black Slaves for the Colonists.
With the yearly capture and transport of one million Black slaves it is not difficult to figure that from 1661 to 1774 (one hundred thirteen years) approximately one hundred ten million slaves had been removed from their native land. About ten percent, or ELEVEN MILLION, Black slaves reached the Colonies alive.
We have talked about the small ship "Abigail" which could accommodate only 56 people and yet the profits per trip were enormous, with little or no investment. There were many other ships but we will concentrate here on only a few, such as the "La Fortuna," "Hannah," "Sally" or the "Venue" which made very great profits. The "La Fortuna," by the way, transported approximately 217 slaves on each trip. The owner cleared not less than $41,438.00 from such a trip. These were dollars which the slave dealers 'could keep'. And these were dollars of value which would buy a great deal in return.
When one considers that the Jews of Newport owned about 300 slave-transporting ships, active without interruption, docking at Newport-Africa, Charleston, (or Virginia), one can approximate the tremendous earnings which made their way to Jewish ship owners. Indeed, the Jews admit, that of the 600 ships, leaving Newport harbor into all the world, "at least half of them" went their way to Africa, and we know what these ships going to Africa "were seeking."
The fact that Aaron Lopez had control of over more than half of the combined deals in the Colonies of Rhode Island, with Newport, is well-known. The well-known Rabbi Morris A. Gutstein, in his book, The Story of the Jews in Newport, attempts to remove these facts, maintaining that there is not any evidence that the Jews were connected with the Slave Trade. It is therefore imperative to prove that the Jew was indeed connected with the slave trading. Especially so since this rabbi insists they had made great contributions, and how very "blessed" their residence became for the city of Newport. Surely Morris A. Gutstein will grant us permission to present the facts which he was unable to find.
Turning to one report of the Chamber of Commerce of the "Rhode Island Colony" in the year 1764, we find, for instance, that in the year 1723 "a few merchants in Newport" devised the idea to send their Newport rum to the coast of Africa. It developed into such a great export that in the matter of a few years "several thousand (hogsheads)" of rum went that way. To which purpose did this rum serve?
The Carnegie Institute in Washington, D.C., presents and makes public authentic documents entitled "Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade in America". We wish to present a few facts from this particular collection of original documents and scrutinize them at closer range, and not at all to prove the heretofore Rabbi Morris A. Gutstein in error. In this collection of the first American institute of learning, we evaluate the capital "Rhode Island" which contributed the main share of the public documentation regarding the Slave trading. Here we find documented the recipients of the numerous shipping letters, also letters to the Slave dealers, and correspondence to the ship's captains, who were about 15% Jews, living in Newport. Among these we find, for instance, the Jew Isaac Elizar. He wrote a letter to Captain Christopher Champlin on February 6, 1763, saying he would like to be an agent for a load of slaves. Then follows the Jew Abraham Pereira Mendez, and one of the main slave dealers, Jacob Rod Rivera-the father-in-law of Aaron Lopez. And then there is Aaron Lopez, himself, and many, many more other Jews. Although we have considered Aaron Lopez several times, the size of this documented treatise limits us, and we cannot describe all of the writers concerned in the Slavery Dealing correspondence, their names and the special dates—rather, we wish to study the documentation of the 'Carnegie Institute' itself—keeping Aaron Lopez in mind. We wish to see what in the main this Jew was pursuing and what his business was. This is due to the fact that Rabbi Morris A. Gutstein presents him as a "lofty and fine civilian of Newport" who was so generous and even "made contributions to welfare."
In a great number of published original unprejudiced writings in the Carnegie Institute, we find that Aaron Lopez pursued a tremendous commerce in rum with the African coast in exchange for slaves. These irrefutable facts are as follows:
* June 22, 1764, a letter by Captain William Stead to Aaron Lopez.
* July 22, 1765, a letter by Aaron Lopez to Captain Nathaniel Briggs.
* July 22, 1765, a letter to Captain Abraham All.
* February 4, 1766, a letter to Captain William Stead by Aaron Lopez.
* March 7, 1766, a letter by Captain William Stead to Aaron Lopez.
* February 20, 1766, a letter by Aaron Lopez to Captain William Stead.
* October 8, 1766, a letter by Captain William Stead to Aaron Lopez.
* February 9, 1767, a letter by Captain William Stead to Aaron Lopez.
Aside from that, there are similar statements out of letters by Aaron Lopez in the original, which he directed to the Captains Henry Cruger, David Mill, Henry White, Thomas Dolbeare, and William Moore. Indeed, one letter by Captain William Moore to Aaron Lopez & Company, is particularly revealing, and of special mention at this point. We wish to remark on the main contents of this letter in which Captain Moore writes: "I wish to advise you that your ship 'Ann' docked here night before last with 112 slaves, consisting of 35 men, 16 large youths, 21 small boys, 29 women, 2 grown girls, 9 small girls, and I assure you this is such a one rumcargo (rum in exchange for slaves) which I have not yet encountered, among the entire group there may be five to which one could take exception."
The date of the above letter was November 27, 1773. We have not yet concluded, because of lack of space, the excerpts and grateful compilations made available by the "Carnegie Institute."
On November 29, 1767, the Jew Abraham Pereira Mendez—who had been cheated by one of his kind—from Charleston, where he had journeyed to better control his Black cargo, wrote Aaron Lopez at Newport:
"These Negroes, which Captain Abraham All delivered to me, were in such poor condition due to the poor transportation, that I was forced to sell 8 boys and girls for a mere 27 (pounds), 2 other for 45 (pounds) and two women each for 35 (pounds)." (No doubt, English money)
Abraham Pereia Mendez was very angry and accused Aaron Lopez of "cheating" him. This letter delineates to us that this generous and fine citizen of Newport was insatiable in his greed for money. This is what caused the Rabbi Morris A. Gutstein to present this nobleman, Aaron Lopez, to pursue his objectionable methods. Negroes presented to him but a commodity.
In all of the letters which the "Carnegie Institute" published, it stresses the lack of human sympathy for the poor Negro slaves. This lack of feeling and compassion for the abused and pitiful Blacks at the hands of their Jewish dealers, can be read out of the diary of a captain who manned a ship owned by Aaron Lopez. The entrees concern a trip from the African Coast to Charleston. Moreover, they are authentic documents, published by the "Camegie Institute" in Washington, D.C., calling attention to an organization which had heretofore known little or nothing about; neither had they encountered further publicity in books or newspapers. Therefore, it is not to be wondered at that the facts of the leading share of American Jews in the slave trade could be pointed out as a monopoly, and unknown to the non-Jewish Americans, including the great masses of people all over the world. Others, however, acquainted with the facts, had good reason to remain painfully quiet.
The captain of another ship, the "Othello" among other things, makes the following entries in his diary:
* February 6th: One man drowned in the process of loading.
* March 18th: Two women went overboard because they had not been locked up.
* April 6th: One man dead with Flux. (No doubt an illness.)
* April 13th: One woman dead with Flux.
* May 7th: One man dead with Flux.
* June 16th: One man dead by Kap Henry.
* June 21st: One man dead by James Fluss.
* July 5th: One woman dead with fever.
* July 6th: One girl, sick for two months, died.
This vessel was on its way for five months. What terrible and unspeakable suffering was the lot of these millions of Blacks, who were torn with brutal force from their friendly African huts, jammed together, like animals below deck, and then sold with less concern than selling a head of cattle. Small wonder that ten of them died, being purchased for just a few dollars, and then sold for the sum of $2,000.00. ... Read more
1 comment:
I never knew this-shocking!
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