Joseph Nightingale (1748-1797)
Col. Joseph Nightingale, Shipping & Slave Merchant, of Providence, R.I.
He fought at the Battle of Rhode Island (1778) under General Sullivan and was Colonel of the Rhode Island Militia. He was one of the leading merchants in Providence and a partner in the mercantile firm of Clark & Nightingale. The firm sent their ships to foreign ports including Catavia (Jakara), Goa and Isle de France (Mauritius). Goods they imported and sold included: indigo, "Bengal Goods," hats, steel, wine, brandy, cheese, sugar, meat, linseed oil and paper. Clark & Nightingale also ran a rum distillery. Joseph and the Nightingale family engaged in what was termed the 'Triangular Trade': the first leg took their distilled rum from Providence to the slave markets of East Africa. The second leg saw molasses exchanged for slaves in the Caribbean islands or the Southern States. The last leg took them back to New England where if they had any remaining slaves they sold them at smaller ports such as Rehobeth, Westport and Taunton, Massachusetts. He had 4-children and built the Nightingale-Brown House.
