Manifest of the brig Sally; September 11, 1764
Manifest of the Sally on its departure for Africa. The document, dated September 11, 1764, includes the name of the ship's captain (Esek Hopkins), owner (Nicholas Brown and Company, the name under which the four Brown brothers then did business), and a brief description of the ship's cargo. The primary commodity on the ship was New England rum, some 17, 274 gallons, but the cargo also included thirty boxes of spermaceti candles, 1800 bunches of onions, forty barrels of flour, 51 loaves of sugar, and various other trade goods and supplies.

Manifest of the Wheel; January 2, 1759
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 ship, under the command of William Earle, reached Africa safely, but was captured by a French privateer on its return journey, resulting in a substantial financial setback for the owners. This document, dated January 2, 1759, is the official manifest of the Wheel. It includes the names of the captain and owners, as well as a brief description of the ship's cargo, chiefly rum.