Return to African Americans and the End of Slavery in Massachusetts

Letter from John Saffin, John Usher, and others to William Welstead, 12 June 1681

Letter from John Saffin, John Usher, and others to William Welstead, 12 June 1681
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31.5 cm x 20.2 cm

From the Jeffries family papers


Letter, possibly a copy, from John Saffin, John Usher, Edward Shippen, James Wetcombe, and Andrew Belcher to shipmaster William Welstead, 12 June 1681.  The writers, a group of Boston merchants, ask Captain Welstead to intercept a ship they had sent out the previous year to west Africa to capture people to sell into slavery, and to direct the ship to Nantasket to offload the human cargo.