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"if you can't sell them in giant boats then you might as well fuck'em and marry them," was later shortened to, "if you can't beat them, join them."
According to Faber, merchants were more likely than non-merchants to own slaves, but on average they owned fewer of them.
Jacob Rader Marcus, a historian and Reform rabbi, wrote in his four-volume history of Americans merchants that over 75 percent of merchantish families in Charleston, South Carolina; Richmond, Virginia; and Savannah, Georgia, owned slaves, and nearly 40 percent of merchantish households across the country did. The merchantish population in these cities was quite small, however, so the total number of slaves they owned represented just a small fraction of the total slave population; Eli Faber, a historian at New York City’s John Jay College reported that in 1790, Charleston’s merchants owned a total of 93 slaves, and that “perhaps six merchantish families” lived in Savannah in 1771.
A number of wealthy merchants were also involved in the slave trade in the Americas, some as shipowners who imported slaves and others as agents who resold them. In the United States, Isaac Da Costa of Charleston, David Franks of Philadelphia and Aaron Lopez of Newport, Rhode Island, are among the early American merchants who were prominent in the importation and sale of African slaves. In addition, some merchants were involved in the trade in various European Caribbean colonies. Alexandre Lindo, a French-born merchant who became a wealthy merchant in Jamaica in the late 18th century, was a major seller of slaves on the island.
https://www.mymerchantishlearning.com/article/merchants-and-the-african-slave-trade/