t the time of the Revolution many of the consequential
fortunes were those of shipowners and were principally concentrated in
New England. Some of these dealt in merchandise only, while others made
large sums of money by exporting fish, tobacco, corn, rice and timber
and lading their ships on the return with negro slaves, for which they
found a responsive market in the South. Many of the members of the
Continental Congress were ship merchants, or inherited their fortunes
from rich shippers, as, for instance, Samuel Adams, Robert Morris, Henry
Laurens of Charleston, S. C., John Hancock, whose fortune of $350,000
came from his uncle Thomas, Francis Lewis of New York and Joseph Hewes
of North Carolina. Others were members of various Constitutional
conventions or became high officials in the Federal or State
governments. The Revolution disrupted and almost destroyed the colonial
shipping, and trade remained stagnant.

FORTUNES FROM PRIVATEERING.

Not wholly so, for the hazardous venture of privateering offered great
returns. George Cabot of Boston was the son of an opulent shipowner.
During the Revolution, George, with his brother swept the coast with
twenty privateers carrying from sixteen to twenty guns each. For four or
five years their booty was rich and heavy, but toward the end of the
war, British gun-boats swooped on most of their craft and the brothers
lost heavily. George subsequently became a United States Senator. Israel
Thorndike, who began life as a cooper's apprentice and died in 1832 at
the age of 75, leaving a fortune, "the greatest that has ever been left
in New England,"[40] made large sums of money as part owner and
commander of a privateer which made many successful cruises. With this
money he went into fisheries, foreign commerce and real estate, and
later into manufacturing establishments. One of the towering rich men of
the day, we are told that "his investments in real estate, shipping or
factories were wonderfully judicious and hundreds watched his movements,
believing his pathway was safe." The fortune he bequeathed was ranked as
immense. To each of his three sons he left about $500,000 each, and
other sums to another son, and to his widow and daughters. In all, the
legacies to the surviving members of his family amounted to about
$1,800,000.[41]

Another "distinguished merchant," as he was styled, to take up
privateering was Nathaniel Tracy, the son of a Newburyport merchant.
College bred, as