26 Facts About James DeWolf

James DeWolf was an American slave trader and politician.

James DeWolf served as a state legislator for a total of nearly 25 years, and in the 1820s served as a United States senator from Rhode Island.

James DeWolf born in Bristol, Rhode Island, in 1764 to Mark Anthony DeWolf and Abigail Hazel Potter.

James DeWolf had eight siblings including four brothers: Charles, John, William and Levi DeWolf.

James DeWolf went to sea at an early age as a sailor on board American privateers during the later half of the American Revolutionary War.

James DeWolf participated in several naval encounters and was captured twice by the British.

James DeWolf began to engage in commercial ventures, including slave trading, often purchasing seasoned slaves from Cuba and other ports in the West Indies and transporting them primarily to southern markets in the United States.

In 1791, James DeWolf was indicted for murder by a grand jury in Newport, Rhode Island.

James DeWolf was alleged to have directed the murder of a female African slave in 1789 who was sick with smallpox on the ship Polly, which he commanded; after having been treated to the best of the crew's knowledge, she was bound to a chair and lowered overboard.

James DeWolf was later charged in the case in Saint Thomas, where he was then living.

In 1795 James DeWolf testified about the case in court in Saint Thomas, West Indies, with no one present to oppose his testimony; the Danish judge ruled in his favor.

James DeWolf financed another 25 slaving voyages, usually with other members of his family.

In total, the James DeWolf family is believed to have transported more than 11,000 slaves to the United States before the African slave trade was banned in 1808.

James DeWolf owned a rum distillery for use in trade in West Africa, and with his brothers and nephews started the Bank of Bristol, with two generations of family, and an insurance company, which together financed and insured their slave ships.

James DeWolf became a founding member of a consortium that formed the Arkwright Manufacturing Company in 1809.

James DeWolf built the Arkwright Mills in Coventry, Rhode Island in 1810.

James DeWolf became active in politics and highly influential in the new state during the decades of the Federal period.

James DeWolf was first elected as a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives in 1798, and served until 1801.

James DeWolf was elected as speaker of the House from 1819 to 1821.

James DeWolf served part of his six-year term, from March 4,1821, until he resigned on October 31,1825.

James DeWolf died in New York City in 1837 at the age of 73, thought to be a millionaire and the second-wealthiest man in the United States.

James DeWolf's body was returned to Rhode Island, and he was buried in the DeWolf private cemetery on Woodlawn Avenue in Bristol.

James DeWolf's estate included properties in Bristol, New York, Maryland, Kentucky, and Ohio.

James DeWolf was the daughter of William Bradford, deputy governor and a future US senator from Rhode Island.

James DeWolf named one of his brigs, the brig Nancy, after his wife.

James DeWolf is one of the members of the Bristol branch of the James DeWolf family.