Nicholas Brown & Co. to Sheldon, Pardon; December 12, 1763
In addition to launching at least a thousand transatlantic slaving voyages, Rhode Island merchants routinely trafficked in small lots of slaves in the course of trading expeditions to the southern colonies or Caribbean. In this letter, dated December 12, 1763, the Brown brothers offer instructions to Pardon Sheldon, master of the sloop Four Brothers, for a voyage to Virginia. A postscript advises: "The Negro man Corodon you are to sell for the most he will fetch." Accounts from the voyage reveal that Corodon, who appears to have been owned jointly by the four Brown brothers, was sold for 40.