Middle Passage to New London

Middle Passage to New London. . , In the spring of 1761, the schooner Speedwell left the west coast of Africa with ninety-five captive Africans crowded beneath her deck. By the time it arrived in New London, Connecticut on July 17, only seventy-four were still alive. , The Speedwell docked in New London for several days before sailing to Middletown, Connecticut, where some of the Africans were sold on July 24. Others, nine males and twelve females, were enslaved on the farm of one of the shipowners near Hartford. , Although this is the only documented voyage of a ship arriving in New London directly from Africa with enslaved Africans, slave traders often sailed from New London to Africa and the West Indies to purchase enslaved Africans and sell them throughout the Americas. , But the sale of enslaved Africans is only one part of a larger story of how slavery drove New London's eighteenth-century economy. The food, livestock and lumber that flowed through New London to the West Indies supported the sugar plantations where enslaved Africans toiled. , Many New London households profited more directly from slavery. By 1774, New London County contained more enslaved people than any other county in New England. Black and Indigenous people, most of whom were enslaved, comprised 9.7% of New London's population. , In 2018, because of the Speedwell’s arrival here, UNESCO designated New London a Slave Route Project Site of Memory. , This plaque honors the Africans who died during the Middle Passage and the enslaved people whose forced labor created much of New London's early wealth and led to disparities which still exist today.