Aftermath of the Voyage

The Sally finally reached the West Indies in October, 1765. Still unaware of the ship's fate, the Browns dispatched a letter to Hopkins, offering advice on the disposal of the ship's cargo and on the commodities he should purchase for the return voyage to Providence. [1] The brothers finally learned the full scope of the disaster in November, after receiving a letter from Hopkins, sent from Antigua. [2]

In the wake of the Sally's voyage, three of the four Brown brothers—Nicholas, Joseph, and Moses—never again directly participated in the transatlantic slave trade. Their decision appears to have been motivated less by moral qualms than by simple financial calculation. Between the loss of the Wheel of Fortune in 1759 and the Sally debacle five years later, they had good reason to believe that slave trading was too risky. Their decision did not prevent them from continuing to traffic in slave-produced goods or from supplying other merchants who were mounting African voyages, including their brother John, who launched another ship to Africa in 1769. [3] In all, John sponsored at least four transatlantic slaving voyages after the Sally, in 1769, 1785, 1786, and 1795.

In time, at least one of the brothers would repent his involvement in the slave trade. In 1773, Moses Brown experienced a severe emotional crisis, brought about by the death of his wife, Anna. He emerged as an ardent opponent of slavery and the slave trade. In November, 1773, he freed his slaves. [4] He also threw himself into the embryonic abolition movement, lobbying for state and federal anti-slavery laws and urging friends and neighbors to divest themselves of the "unrighteous traffic." [5] His chief antagonist, ironically, was his older brother John, who continued vigorously to defend the trade. "[I]n my opinion there is no more crime in bringing off a cargo of slaves than in bringing off a cargo of jackasses," John once declared.