Notice the details of the merchant ship. Ships like these sailed between the US Colonies and England in the 17th century. "Renewed growth came with the 17th century rise of England's American colonies and the rapid 18th century expansion of England's part in the Atlantic trade in Africans taken for slavery in the Americas. Bristol, along with Liverpool, became a center for the Triangular trade. In the first stage of this trade manufactured goods were taken to West Africa and exchanged for Africans who were then, in the second stage or middle passage, transported across the Atlantic in brutal conditions. The third leg of the triangle brought plantation goods such as sugar, tobacco, rum, rice and cotton[45] and also a small number of slaves who were sold to the aristocracy as house servants, some eventually buying their freedom." Bristol, located on the western side of England, served as a major seaport for trade.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol
