Receipt for 121 ells of ticklenberg
This document, dated September 10, 1764, is a receipt for 121 ells of ticklenberg from Thomas and John Greene. A coarse linen cloth named for the German city in which it was first manufactured, ticklenberg was often marketed in the West Indies to make clothing for slaves, but it was also sometimes traded on the West African coast. An ell was a unit of length, usually about 45 inches.

Receipt for 51 loaves of sugar
This document, dated September 6, 1764, is a receipt for 51 loaves of sugar purchased by the Browns from William Mumford and included in the cargo of the Sally. Produced by enslaved workers in the plantation colonies of the West Indies, this sugar would be used in Africa to procure more captives and, in turn, more sugar.

Receipt for a copper pump
This document is a receipt for a copper pump purchased by the Browns from a local businessman, Jos. Belcher, for use on the Sally during its transatlantic voyage, September 12, 1764.

Receipt for a large iron pot
This document is a receipt for a large iron pot purchased by the Browns from Jn. Vinable of Newport, September 12, 1764. Such pots were often used on slave ships to prepare the gruel that was fed to the captives confined below deck.

Receipt of five small arms and a barrel of rum
The Sally was not the Brown family's first foray into the transatlantic slave trade. In 1736, James and Obadiah Brown, father and uncle to the four Brown brothers, dispatched the Mary to West Africa. In 1759, Obadiah and his nephews, John and Nicholas, joined with five other investors to launch the Wheel of Fortune. The voyage proved a financial disaster, when the ship was taken by a French privateer. In this document, dated January 2, 1759, William Earle, master of the Wheel, acknowledges receipt of five small arms and a barrel of rum from John Brown, the proceeds from which he is to use to "purchess one Likely Negro Boy about 13 or 14 Years Old."

Receipt: Ingraham, Samuel to John Brown
This document, dated August 7, 1764, is a receipt from Samuel Ingraham, a local blacksmith, for the cost nails, bolts, and other ironware, as well as for iron work on the Sally's small boat.