<html><head></head><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: -webkit-auto; ">lluminated by The Light</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: -webkit-auto; "><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: -webkit-auto; "><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: -webkit-auto; ">It could be imagined</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: -webkit-auto; ">That a ship, sailing north to Newport with a cargo of sugar and molasses, was shipwrecked on Gay Head. </div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: -webkit-auto; "><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: -webkit-auto; "><div>It is conceivable</div><div>When the ship broke up, the sugar dissolved, the casks of molasses sank, that the Wampanoag salvaged everything that didn't float away, even the ballast stones.</div></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: -webkit-auto; "><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: -webkit-auto; ">It could be<div>That the ballast stones from a New England slave ship were the foundation of the first Gay Head Light.</div><div><br></div><div>Possibly</div><div>They used 340 ballast stones, one for each slave captured in Madagascar, sailed round the Cape of Good Hope, across the Atlantic, and sold in the Caribbean. </div><div><br></div><div>Historians say</div><div>The shipwreck would have been a disaster to Newport's two dozen distilleries, wanting sugar and molasses to turn into rum, to ship out to Africa, to trade for more slaves.</div><div><br></div><div><div>Whereas</div><div></div><div>The Southern states with vast arable tracts to farm needed slaves, the Northern states, with poor soil and good harbors, looked to the sea. </div><div></div><div></div></div><div><br></div><div><div>Evidently</div><div></div><div>It was easier to catch people and sell them than it was to catch whales and boil them on board. </div></div><div><br></div><div>Records show </div><div>Newport had 150 ships dedicated, whole or in part, to the slave trade in 1750. The economy of New England was based on shipping. Shipping meant slaving, whole or in part.</div><div><br></div><div>It is said</div><div>Everyone profited one way or another; rope makers, tanners, coopers, sail makers, provisioners like cattlemen and farmers, candle makers, vintners, potters, weavers. Everyone had dirty hands; the Faneuils, the Browns, the Whipples, the Cabots. Ezra Stiles, while President of Yale, imported slaves. </div><div><br></div><div>Unquestionably</div><div>Ships can't be permitted to sink virtually within sight of home port. A light house at Gay Head was essential.</div><div><br></div><div>After all,</div><div>Business is business.</div><div><br></div><div>It is recorded</div><div>That America's most noble names endorsed the Gay Head Light. From Nantucket, a Coffin requested it. George Washington approved it. Alexander Hamilton funded it. Paul Revere was tinsmith. </div><div><br></div><div>It is established</div><div>That more than half the American ships involved in the African slave trade were out of Rhode Island. Over a span of two hundred years, Newport ships trafficked 300,000 slaves.</div><div><br></div><div>It would seem</div><div>On the rum leg of the Triangle Trade, ships sailed up Vineyard Sound, their way made safe by the Gay Head Light.</div><div><br></div><div>New England </div></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); "><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: -webkit-auto; ">Rectitude and pious protests not withstanding, the Gay Head Light, three whites and one red, illuminated the long night of slavery, and waited with indifference for dawn.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); "><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: -webkit-auto; "><br></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); "><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- </span></span>Julie Jaffe</div></div></body></html>