Sons of Providence: The Brown Brothers, the Slave Trade, and the American Revolution: Charles Rappleye

The colony of Rhode Island was founded as a home for the religious dissidents who couldn't find peace even in the freedom of the other American colonies. The attitudes this engendered carried through the generations and was nowhere more evident then in the sons of the Brown family of Providence, Rhode Island. John and Moses, the two youngest sons, were worlds apart in their moral beliefs but they held together as family throughout everything though Moses was hard pressed to reconcile his brother's behavior with his own Quaker beliefs. It was a conflict that would plague him for most of his life.

John and Moses Brown were born into the family in the 1730's, the youngest sons of the family. The Brown family was already quite wealthy by the standards of the day. They had their hands in a variety of ventures including farming, shipping, candle-making, and rum distilling. Once Moses and John were old enough to take a hand in the business, with their older brothers Nicholas and Joseph, they helped increase the fortunes quite a bit. It was at this point in the 1760's that John decided to jump headlong into the slave trade. The existing records don't show any moral conflicts from Moses regarding the slave trade at this point, but the venture itself is not without problems. Undeterred, John continues to finance privateers to ply the waters as revolution starts to brew in the colonies.

The Brown brothers were deeply involved in the American Revolution, though for very different reasons. While most colonists saw it as their moral or patriotic obligation, John viewed it more as a "personal bonanza" and used the war to make quite a bit of money supplying the colonial troops with much needed supplies. Moses, however, saw the revolution as a way to make changes to the state of human bondage. After the death of his beloved first wife Moses was wracked with guilt and decided to free all of his slaves, granting them the right of manumission. After he did this he joined the Quakers with a free heart. He spent much time writing letters, drafting bills and amendments, and making requests to men of learning stating that slavery was wrong, it was against the laws of God and should be outlawed. Unfortunately, slavery was such a touchy issue that no one felt comfortable making any decisions on it while there was a war brewing. Moses' fight would have to be put on hold.

After the war the brothers would venture forth in separate enterprises. Moses became an active abolitionist and founded the Moses Brown School in 1784. In 1790 he co-designed and built the first water-powered cotton mill in the United States. John became an active federalist and was eventually elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1798. Ironically, he was also the first person prosecuted under the federal slave importation laws of 1796.

While many in the U.S. still wring their hands in embarrassment over slavery and try to whitewash it, it was a part of our history as it is a part of many countries. The Brown brothers, each on different sides of the same issue, never forgot that they were family. They bickered and battled but they still held true to their beliefs, and each other. It's an important lesson to learn, especially in this day and age.
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Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (May 15, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0743266889
ISBN-13: 978-0743266888
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