"The Owners Ship Eagle in Account Current with Henry Skinner," 1791
Item 101827 info
Maine Historical Society
This account is directed to the owners of the ship Eagle which included Thomas Robison of Portland, Maine. As a participant in the triangle trade, Robison used sugar and molasses from the West Indies to produce rum in his distil house, located on his wharf at the foot of Ann (now Park) Street in Portland. Rum from New England was often shipped to Africa, where ship captains would collect a cargo of slaves before sailing to the West Indies.
In 1791, Spain's King Charles IV had recently opened the port of Havana, Cuba to foreign trade. The Eagle's Captain Henry Skinner took advantage of this trade opportunity by purchasing goods and services in Havana after selling thirteen slaves from Africa. Most of the proceeds from the sale were put toward the purchase of sugar; other expenses show the cost of feeding, clothing, and transporting human cargo.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts outlawed the slave trade in 1787, and the Eagle's slaving voyage was unlawful. As a result, the Eagle's Captain Henry Skinner and Robison's agent Thomas Hodges were taken to court in Portland in 1792. According to a footnote on page 28 of William Willis's "History of Portland" (1831) Skinner et. al. were fined £200 for fitting out the ship and £50 for each of the thirteen slaves sold.
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