Moses Brown

Moses Brown. . Brown Square's founder, Moses Brown, became wealthy and helped develop Newburyport based on his profits from New England's “Triangle Trade”, the economic engine that drove much of the slave trade in the 18th and 19th centuries. , Moses Brown (1742-1827), one of Newburyport's wealthiest residents in his day, was responsible for many philanthropic gifts to the community, including laying out Brown Square as a tree-lined public open space in 1802. While he refused to become directly involved in the slave trade, the foundation of his wealth was trade and importation of slave-produced sugar and molasses from the West Indies. Brown sold the imported sugar and molasses, and established a rum distillery at the foot of Green Street in an area still known as “Brown's Wharf.” The history of Brown Square illuminates some of New England's complex relationship with slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries, including both the Triangle Trade and the Abolition Movement generations later. , Moses Brown and many other Newburyport merchants were deeply involved in the sugar and rum trade that fueled the notorious “Triangle Trade” and the enslavement of millions of Africans. Much of the rum distilled in New England was consumed in North America, and many different trade goods were exchanged for slaves on the West African coast, but the majority of rum from New England was shipped to Africa where it was exchanged by traders for more slaves. The enslaved Africans were then transported across the Atlantic to the New World, where the vast majority of them were sent to labor in the Caribbean sugar plantations, eventually producing more sugar and molasses to complete the vicious cycle of the Triangle Trade. , During much of Moses Brown's life, cheap rum was the chief manufactured product of New England, and the export of rum was the main foundation of the New England economy. There were about 10 rum distilleries in Newburyport in 1790. There were about 60 in Massachusetts at the height of the industry. By the end of the 1700s, sugar, molasses, and rum were so connected to slavery that some abolitionists tried to convince people to stop using sugar. , [Captions] , Top (clockwise from right): , . Historic photo of molasses shipment at Newburyport waterfront. Image courtesy of Historical Society of Old Newbury , . Slave chains used on the sugar plantations of the West Indies. Image courtesy of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library , . “Two Men and a Woman Chopping Sugar Cane” painting by Steele Burden Image courtesy of Rural Life Museum, Louisiana State University , Bottom: Map of the Triangle Trade