An exact replication of Brookes Slave Ship, is made of roughly 300 empty liquor bottles to shed light on the North's role in the slave trade. After the American Revolution, Rhode Island merchants controlled 60-90% of the US trade in African slaves. By 1740, slaving interests in Newport owned or managed 150 vessels engaged in all manner of trading. During this time millions of gallons of liquor were exchanged for slaves. Rhode Island, the smallest colony at the time, had more than 30 distilleries, 22 of them in Newport. In Massachusetts, 63 distilleries produced 2.7 million gallons of rum in 1774.