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The four sons of James Brown were Nicholas, John, Joseph, and Moses Brown who were commonly known as the "Four Brothers" during and after their lifetimes. All four were highly successful merchants from Providence, in the Colony, and later the State of Rhode Island, before, during, and after the American Revolutionary War. All four were also intimately associated with the creation and early development of the College in Rhode Island, which in 1804 was renamed Brown University after the son of one of the brothers who was a major benefactor of the institution.

The four brothers were sons of James Brown (22 March 1698 - 27 April 1739) and his wife Hope Power. James was a wealthy merchant in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, and active in the civil affairs of the colony during the first half of the 18th century.

Slavery
The Brown family was heavily involved in slavery, both as slave owners and as slave traders. The father of the four brothers, Captain James Brown, had purchased slaves as early as 1728, and left four in his estate in 1739.(B:14) The very first slave ship to depart from Providence, the Mary, was dispatched by James Brown. James' younger brother, Obadiah, was the "supercargo" aboard the ship, whose role was to buy and sell the slaves. This was the town's first involvement in the Triangular Trade, where ships left American ports laden with rum and other goods used to purchase slaves on the coast of Africa. They then headed to the West Indies where most of the slaves were offloaded in exchange for sugar and other goods, with a few slaves returning to the the American colonies. With James' premature death in 1739, the family didn't run any more slave ships for the next two decades, but in 1759 Obadiah Brown went into a partnership with the two oldest Brown brothers, Nicholas and John, and sent the ship Wheel of Fortune to the African coast. While the ship was successful in uploading its cargo of slaves, there was a war being conducted between England and France at the time, and the ship was captured by a French privateer.

Voyage of the Sally
Obadiah Brown died in 1762, and the family business was afterwards in the hands of all four brothers, and named Nicholas Brown and Company after the oldest. The brothers had a candle-making business, but needed capital to fund a new venture operating an iron furnace.(B:16) Their plan to fund the new enterprise was to launch their ship Sally on a slaving mission, which was launched from Providence in 1764. The ship's captain was Esek Hopkins, the younger brother of the colony's governor Stephen Hopkins. Hopkins was directed to use the ship's cargo of candles, tobacco, onions and rum to purchase slaves, offload them in the West Indies, and bring back to Rhode Island four adolescent males for the use of the family.(B:16)

The timing of the trip proved to be disastrous. When the Sally arrived on the African coast, there was a glut of slave ships there, with more than two dozen just from Rhode Island. The price of rum plummeted, and it took over nine months for Hopkins to round up 196 slaves for the return trip. The human cargo had deteriorated greatly during the long wait, and by the time the ship sailed, 19 had died and another who was near death was left behind. Several more slaves died during the first week of the voyage, and on the eighth day there was a slave rebellion on board. Eight more slaves died in the melee, with others being wounded. Scores more died during the crossing, some by drowning themselves and others by starving themselves. Even after the ship landed in the West Indies, another 20 died, and one more died enroute to New England, bringing the total death toll of incarcerated humans to 109. Those that managed to survive the voyage were so emaciated that they commanded a price of only 10% of the rate offered for healthy slaves.(B:16)

Following this debacle, all the brothers except for John gave up any direct participation in the transatlantic trade in slaves. Nevertheless, they all continued to engage in businesses that supported the slave trade, such as the establishment of a rum distillery.(B:17) When John launched his next slave ship, the Sutton, in 1769, the family partnership dissolved, though the brothers continued to collaborate on a variety of endeavors. John was engaged in at least three more slave voyages to Africa, mostly in partnership with his son-in-law, John Francis.

Anti-slavery sentiments
During the decade prior to the American Revolutionary War, opposition to slavery grew in Rhode Island. A major catalyst in this growing movement was the Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers. This highly egalitarian religious group was powerful in the colony, and by 1773 required its members to either manumit any slaves they held, or else be expelled from the society.(B:17) The youngest of the four brothers, Moses, who was to become a Quaker, gathered friends and family members in November 1773, and read to them a formal deed of manumission of his slaves. He joined the society the following year, at a time when more and more essays on the abolition of slavery were appearing in American periodicals. In this year an essay by John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, entitled "Thoughts upon Slavery", appeared in the Providence Gazette; it is highly likely that Moses Brown was the one who ensured that this and other essays appeared in local papers.(B:19)

Family and ancestry
James was the second of ten children born to James Brown and Mary Harris, his father being the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Providence. Born and raised in Providence, his father had served for many years on the town council, and had also been the town treasurer before becoming pastor of the Baptist church in 1726, and the family had comfortable economic means.

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 * Includes the spurious pedigree derived from the fraudulent research of Horatio G. Somerby.