Brown exhibit traces links to slave trade

By Jason Szep

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island (Reuters) - More than 100 Africans perished on the slave ship Sally in the voyage from Africa in 1765 -- some hanged themselves or starved to death. Some rebelled and were shot dead or drowned.

The ship's log book, detailing the deaths of slaves that occurred almost daily aboard the ship, is encased in glass in a new exhibit at Brown University that illustrates links between the Ivy League school and the 18th century slave trade.

The exhibit follows a "Slavery and Justice" report by Brown in October that acknowledged its co-founders used money from the slavery of Africans to build the school, a reminder that slavery once flourished in New England -- hundreds of miles (km) from the U.S. South, where it became entrenched.

The U.S. Northeast, whose politicians, Quaker pastors and abolitionists led the fight against slavery, benefited extensively from the trade before it was abolished in 1807.

Brown, the seventh-oldest U.S. university, was built with contributions from people who owned slaves or traded in Africans, including the original Brown family, who owned the Sally and sponsored the voyage that killed 109 of its 196 captives.

"This history surrounds us and we've learned not to see it," said James Campbell, chair of Brown's Committee on Slavery and Justice, which produced the 109-page "Slavery and Justice" report after three years of research and debate on campus.

Newspaper clippings, ledgers of merchants, passages from journals, drawings and other evidence of Rhode Island's domination of North America's share of the transatlantic slave trade are spread over two libraries at the prestigious school in the state capital Providence.

It includes the first North American advertisement for slaves, published in 1704: "Two Negro men, and one Negro Woman & Child; to be Sold by Mr. John Colman, Merchant; to be seen at Col. Charles Hobbey, Esq. his House, in Boston."