In colonial America, slavery existed not just in the south, but in northern colonies as well, including Massachusetts. A study of period newspapers by historian Robert E. Desrochers, Jr., illustrates just how active the slave trade was in the Bay colony. Slavery existed in Massachusetts at least since 1638. Desrochers' study looked at newspaper advertisements of slave sales in the 1700s. In the Boston Gazette alone, advertisements marketed about 2,000 slaves between 1719 and 1781.
Phillis Wheatley Acquired Off a Ship
Boston, the center of the slave trade in Massachusetts, had no single designated marketplace for slaves. Often slaves were sold on the decks of the ships that brought them. Phillis Wheatley, the slave who became a well-known poet, was acquired off a ship as a frail girl fresh from Africa.
Taverns Used for Sales
Boston taverns, especially those along King Street (now State Street), were also often used as places to sell slaves. Four public houses that at one time or another served as slave markets were The Royal Exchange, the Crown Coffee-House, the Bunch of Grapes tavern, and the Sun tavern. One typical advertisement for such a sale read: "On Thursday the 30 Currant will be Sold by Publick Vendue, at the Sun Tavern on Dock Square at Five a Clock p.m. Four likely Negros, and Sundry sort of Merchandize, all to be seen at the Place of Sale from two of the Clock till the Sale begins."
