Editing Silas Talbot (section)

====Slave trader====

Talbot was twice involved in mercantile enterprises, both for a [[slave ship]] cargo including slaves.  In late 1783 he had an interest in a cargo of produce and slaves shipped to Charleston, South Carolina, in the sloop PEGGY.   In August 1785 he bought half of the ninety-ton [[brigantine]] ''Industry''. Both vessels transported slaves from the Guinea region to Charleston. On one 1786 voyage of the ''Industry'', Talbot was notified by his solicitors, Murray, Mumford, and Bower, on 9 September 1786 of a significant financial loss: "We hear about one hundred & eighty Slaves off the coast of Guinea, near half of which died before the brig arrived in Charleston where she is now."<ref>Verhoeven, Wil., ''Gilbert Imlay and the Triangular Trade'', The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 63, no. 4, 2006, pp. 827–42, JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4491581, Accessed 12 Jul. 2022, for the letter quoted see p. 837.</ref><ref>''Slave Voyages'', vessel, Industry, Captain Benjamin Hooks, 1786, mortality rate 53.0 %, https://www.slavevoyages.org/voyage/database</ref>  Talbot later sold his half of the Industry, but as late as 1801 was still trying to collect his half of the cargo which he claimed he had not included in the sale.<ref>G.W. Blunt Library, Mystic Seaport, Silas Talbot Collection https://research.mysticseaport.org/coll/coll018/</ref>