74 Atlantic African, American, and European Backgrounds to Contact, Commerce, and Enslavementstandard of living and established itself as a political, ed-
ucational, and cultural capital. It is worth considering if
the fi nancial signifi cance that New England developed,
which allowed it to launch a campaign for independence,
could have happened minus the profi t slavery consistently
aff orded.
In 1641, Massachusetts, which initially included Maine,
was the fi rst New England colony to legalize slavery. Th is
occurred in the midst of declining immigration from En-
gland and Europe. Slaves, African and Native American,
took up the slack, providing free labor from an early period.
Th e exact date when the fi rst African came to New England
is shrouded, but a shipment carrying cotton, tobacco, salt,
and slaves arrived in Salem in 1638. William Bradford, gov-
ernor of the Bay Colony, so noted in his journal and also
indicated that the ship had sailed from the Caribbean. Not
long before, the same ship had taken to the islands some
Pequot slaves, mostly men and boys, who were war cap-
tives. Th e February arrival that Bradford recorded was the
return voyage for the Desire, which had been built in Salem
expressly for the slave trade.
Some Africans came to New England with special apti-
tudes and knowledge. In 1721, Onesimus, who had a repu-
tation for being a clever slave, convinced his master, Cotton
Mather, that the only way to stop the spread of smallpox
in Boston was to prick the skin and add a bit of infection
to the body. Back home in Africa, he said, few ever died
of the disease because it was understood that introducing
it to the system in small amounts dulled its eff ect. Mather
persuaded Zabdiel Boylston, a doctor, to test the remedy,
which signifi cantly cut the number of casualties. Th ree de-
cades later, another exceptional slave arrived on the Bos-
ton wharf. A sickly girl, in time, she quickly grew stronger,
and her intellect was undeniable and unmistakable. Phillis
Wheatley mastered Latin and Greek and English in short
order, becoming a published poet with a volume of verse to
her credit while she was in her twenties.
Because some slaves fared better than others and since
the concentration of slaves in colonial New England was
less than in the agrarian South, never reaching more than
5 percent overall, which happened just prior to the Ameri-
can Revolution, it is assumed that slavery weighed lightly
there. But slavery, the loss of ownership in the self, is never
inconsequential. Th e colonists understood this because
they argued that the British had enslaved them, robbing
them of personhood, and this was the basis on which theyover the world, including some of the greatest poets, schol-
ars, and artists of Africa and the Middle East. Th is greatly
increased the fame of Mali.
Mali achieved the apex of its territorial expansion under
Mansa Musa. Th e Mali Empire extended from the Atlantic
coast in the west to Songhai far down the Niger bend to the
east, from the salt mines of Taghaza in the north to the leg-
endary gold mines of Wangara in the south. Mansa Musa
died in 1337. He had brought stability and good govern-
ment to Mali, spreading its name abroad.
In the long run, partly due to Musa’s conspicuous
fl aunting of wealth, when ships of Portugal’s Prince Henry
captured Cueta in 1415, Moorish prisoners told more de-
tails of the gold trade. Henry sent his explorers down the
African coast to fi nd a route across sub-Saharan Africa in
order to contain Islam.
See also: Mali; Sudanic Empires; Timbuktu
Moshe TerdimanBibliography
Bell, Nawal Morcos. “Th e Age of Mansa Musa of Mali: Problems
in Succession and Chronology.” Th e International Journal of
African Historical Studies 5, no. 2 (1972):221–34.
Fage, J. D. A History of Africa. London: Hutchinson, 1978.
Levtzion, Nehemia. Ancient Ghana and Mali. London: Methuen,
1973.
Pancella, Peggy. Mansa Musa: Ruler of Ancient Mali. Chicago:
Heinemann Library, 2004.
New England Colonies
Slavery in New England, more urban than rural, despite the
presence of several large plantations, especially in Rhode Is-
land and Connecticut, began as a colony-building measure
before the middle of the 17th century. Slaves were called
on to do whatever was needed, thus developing extensive
expertise. Even though the slave population in New En-
gland was never huge, the colonialists took enormous profi ts
from the trade, in ship-building; in brokering loans; in pro-
viding root vegetables, meat, and fi sh to feed slaves across
a far-fl ung network; and by supplying wood and building
materials for homes and other structures in the South and
West Indies. In little more than a century, thanks to many
streams of income, slavery spelled immense prosperity
for New England. Th us, the region developed an enviable