within crying distance of wife, husband, father or mother, languishing month after month, only to be taken away forever. Aye, "shipped by the Grace of God!" འ Perhaps the most colorful of all the slavers was Simeon Potter. Potter was born in Bristol in the year 1720. Being of meagre circumstance, he received practically no education, a fact evident in his letters, which have been preserved. When but a lad he went to sea as a common sailor. In a short time he was in command of a privateer and after not many years in the hazardous but lucrative trade of privateersman, he was able to return to Bristol a rich man. He soon became the most conspicuous figure in the town. W. H. Munro pictures Simeon Potter: "His wealth was acquired in 'privateering', and tales of his captures upon the sea, and especially of his wild marauding descent upon foreign coast, were familiar as household words to the ears of the Bristolians of three-quarters of a century ago. Those tales lost nothing in the telling and in them Potter came to be endowed with attributes he never possessed. This was especially the case with his stature. Like Charlemagne, he continued to grow taller with each fifty years after his death. He came in time to be pictured as a giant in size and strength, a man whose success was largely due to the might of his arm, and not to any especial mental ability." It is probable that his wealth rather than his personality or ability was the cause of his great influence. It is believed he was worth $250,000, which was an immense fortune in those days. When the Spanish and French wars were over, and privateering was for the time being at an end, he found an outlet for his energies in constant litigations. He was forever one of the parties to some lawsuit. Vain and arrogant, he tolerated no opposition, "exacted from his townsmen the deference invariably rendered by seamen to the quarter-deck, and never forgot his success was due to his unaided efforts." Shortly after he returned from his famous raid on Gyapoc, French Guiana, his privateer, the Prince Charles, was visited by several officers from a British man-of-war which was lying nearby in Newport Harbor. The Britishers were fascinated by the trim, man-of-war appearance of the privateer and so expressed themselves to Potter, but unfortunately in a rather patronizing manner. Potter was not the man to take kindly this manner of address. Finally one of them asked him why he did not apply to the king for a commission, for he would then not only become a British officer, but probably get a larger and better ship. Captain Simeon Potter eyed the officer with an expression akin to contempt, as he snapped back, "When I wish for a better ship I will not ask His Majesty I will build one myself." for one; In 1752, he was chosen to represent the town of Bristol in the General Assembly. He rose as high as an Assistant, an office corresponding to State Senator. It was in 1764 that we first find Captain Potter investing his fortune in African ventures. The invoice of "Cargo and Outfitts" of the ship King George, commanded by Captain William Earle, amounted to £80,112.os.4d., in poor currency. Potter, unlike many slave traders and their Boswells, did not seek to cover his cloven-foot trade with a heavenly aura. He brazenly wrote the following instructions to Captain Earle: "Make yr Cheif Trade with the Blacks and Little or none with the white people if possible to be avoided. Worter yr Rum as much as possible and sell as much by the short mesuer as you can." Simeon can hardly be accused of dissembling. The reason for his monition to trade with the blacks, rather than white people, was that slaves purchased from independent black chiefs averaged about forty shillings cheaper than those purchased from organized companies of white men. The average price of a prime man slave about this time was 110 gallons of rum, which was equivalent to about £12 sterling. There is nothing more characteristic of Simeon Potter than his letter to the well-known Rhode Island merchant, Aaron Lopez, in which he vents his spleen on being asked to pay what he considers an unjust debt and admits giving bribe of four dollars to "save the duty": "Sir, "Bristol, March 1st, 1770. Your favor of the 23 ult I received per Mr. Orr and observe you have received the 3 Bbls. Indigo, and as to the Bill I sea you are onest. I have received no answer from Captain Whipple to my letter altho I know he has received it. As to the Money being advanced by your Corespondant on my Credit I cant say I know the Gentleman or he me, and was it advanced for my Youse I shuld not hesitate a moment. But so far to the Conterarey of that, when my Sloop put back to stop a Leak the hol Expence was not more then 50 PS. 8/8 and Captain Whipple sold three hhds. of my Molasis to defray that Expence. as to your detaining the 6 Dollars fraght its very well. But as to the 4 Dollars charged you as a present to the Waiter was ginen in Newport to save the Duty, and out of my money I sent to pay the Dutes of my Molases. Thearfore Tide Waiter, "a custom officer who awaited the arrival of ships (formerly coming in with the tide), and boarded them to prevent the evasion of the custom-house regulations." The term has passed out of use. I shall think very hard if it's not repaid me again. I hope Captain Whipple will give you a satesfactuery account about the Bill. I shall due everything in my Power [to get] it settled. I am Your Humble [Servant] Simeon Potter" Potter was active in Colonial councils until the beginning of the Revolution, when after a time he ceased to take much part in the political affairs of the town or state. But the war appealed to the grizzled privateersman and he engaged in it with enthusiasm and soon found himself chosen by his fellow members of the General Assembly to fill the office of Major-General of the Rhode Island Colonial Forces. No doubt his lyrical effusion had something to do with this appointment. The following lines appear in Munro's Tales of an Old Sea Port. The poem in Potter's own handwriting is preserved to the present day by a descendant of one of his sisters: "I love with all my heart To fight on England's side. |