1815: Trade Begins

Image from Taller Puertorriqueño

Philadelphia’s port books document the earliest known arrival of goods from Puerto Rico to Philadelphia. On 31 May 1805, the cargo on the Brig St. Gertrude, which had been loaded at the port of Aguadilla, docked in Philadelphia. The ship’s manifest listed 6,000 leather hides, three tons lignum vitae (Caribbean wood), 2,000 pounds of tobacco, also coffee, cotton, limes, and mahogany. Consigned to Joseph Madeira, a Philadelphia merchant, the goods would be offered for sale at 239 High Street, a Madeira family business trading under the name G. A. and J. Madeira. Situated on Puerto Rico’s northwest coast, the strategically-located port of Aguadilla harbored ships and cargo from Caribbean islands and South America destined for American cities.

Sugar continued to be the major import to Philadelphia from Puerto Rico. In the early nineteenth century, in addition to sugar, ships laden with coffee, Caribbean wood products, copper, indigo, cotton, pineapples, coconuts, and occasionally rum, sailed up the Delaware River. With its high molasses content, Muscovado sugar often topped the list of cargo shipped to Philadelphia merchants from Puerto Rico.

Written by Sandi Hewlett, a professional genealogist who teaches and consults to help others with their family histories.

See the Spanish version of this page here.

For more context on this event, see the Economics page.

Further Resources

• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, “Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1800 –1882,” online database, ancestry.com, Manifest for Brig St. Gertrude, citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm of Record Group 36, Series M425, Records of the United States Customs Service 1745–1997, List no. 100A.
• Edward Whitely, The Philadelphia Directory and Register for 1820, unpaginated.
• Sugar from Puerto Rico offered for sale in weekly newspapers. For example, see The National Gazette, 18 May 1833, page 1, advertising a sale from the Walnut Street wharf.
• “Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1800 –1882.”