Moses Brown

• Born: September 23, 1738
• Birthplace: Providence, Rhode Island
• Died: September 6, 1836
• Place of death: Providence, Rhode Island

American textile manufacturer, merchant, and abolitionist

Brown was born into a prominent commercial and seafaring family in colonial New England, and he was instrumental in establishing the textile industry there. The most significant of his charitable bequests were to Brown University and to a private preparatory school.

Sources of wealth: Manufacturing; trade

Bequeathal of wealth: Relatives; charity; educational institution.

Early Life

Moses Brown was a member of a business-oriented family that was involved in various commercial enterprises in and around Providence, Rhode Island. While Brown’s formal schooling ended when he was about thirteen, he learned business and seafaring skills through his family’s business. The Brown family was involved in the African slave trade, although this was never their primary business venture. In 1764, Moses and his brother John Brown organized a slaving voyage of the ship Sally, which ended disastrously, with more than half of the slaves dying. This experience turned Brown away from the slave trade, and he eventually became one of the first abolitionists in America.

First Ventures

Brown ended any direct involvement with the slave trade immediately after the voyage of the Sally. He continued to work in the family firm, formally known as Nicholas Brown and Company, until the early 1770’s. In 1773, his wife Anna died, prompting a spiritual crisis that led Brown to embrace the Quaker faith. He withdrew from active business work and devoted himself to religion, charity, and social reform, especially the cause of abolition. He moved to an estate named Elmgrove outside Providence and directed farming operations there, raising Merino sheep and experimenting with a variety of crops and techniques of crop rotation. In November, 1773, he freed the six slaves that he personally owned, and he renounced any financial interest in other slaves that were owned in common by the family.

Mature Wealth

After the American Revolution, Brown worked to establish the textile industry in the United States. He joined with a son-in-law, William Almy, and another relative to form Almy & Brown in order to begin textile mill operations. In 1789, Brown hired Samuel Slater, an immigrant from Great Britain with knowledge of the cotton textile industry, to examine some cotton spinning equipment that Brown’s workers could not get to work properly. Great Britain at this time would not export cotton milling equipment and forbade the export of even the drawings or plans for building such machinery. Slater, however, had smuggled out valuable “mental baggage” and knew how to rebuild Brown’s equipment.

In December, 1790, Slater worked with Brown to open the first water-powered cotton textile mill in the United States at Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Three years later, Slater became a partner in Brown’s firm. While the milling industry made Slater wealthy, Brown claimed that he never made money from it but had simply recouped his initial investments. By the time both Slater and Brown died in the 1830’s, New England had become second only to Great Britain as a center of the cotton milling industry. Brown was also involved in the founding of a bank in Providence in 1791, and he served as an officer of the bank for several years. In the early 1800’s, Brown once again retired from active business pursuits.

Legacy

Although he never accumulated a truly massive fortune, Brown made gifts to numerous charities and reform groups throughout his lifetime. His most important legacies were the founding of Brown University and the Moses Brown School. While Brown University received support from many members of the Brown family, it was Moses who led the effort in 1770 to relocate the school, then called Rhode Island College, from Warren, Rhode Island, to Providence. In 1804, in honor of the generosity of Brown’s nephew Nicholas Brown, the school took the name Brown University. In the twenty-first century, Brown University has faced considerable controversy over the fact that some of its original bequests were from people involved in the slave trade. Moses Brown also led an effort and donated land to establish a Quaker boarding school in Providence in 1784. In 1909, the school took the name the Moses Brown School.

Bibliography

Jones, Augustus. Moses Brown, His Life and Services: A Sketch. 1892. Reprint. Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger, 2009.

Rappleye, Charles. Sons of Providence: The Brown Brothers, the Slave Trade, and the American Revolution. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006.