Richard Oswald

Richard Oswald was a Scottish merchant and slave trader who was co-owner of Bance Island, known as one of the most active slave trading posts on the West African coast.

Richard Oswald started his career as an apprentice to his cousins in Glasgow who were engaged in lucrative tobacco trade. In their service he travelled to the Caribbean and the southern English colonies of North America gaining a valuable experience and insight into the business opportunities.

In 1746 Richard decided to settle in London and to launch his own business. With time he became a prominent trader in colonial goods and slaves. In order to enhance his financial position and business connections he married with Mary Ramsay, the daughter of a wealthy Jamaican merchant.

One of his first business steps was a purchase of Bance Island in the Sierra Leone River in partnership with several other entrepreneurs. The location was known as one of the most active slave trading posts on the West African coast. Oswald even built a golf course for the benefit of the white slave traders.

Subsequently, he acquired shares in slave ships as well as plantations in the Caribbean, Florida and South Carolina. His ships could then transport slaves from Bance Island to plantations in the Americas and return to England with cargoes of sugar and tobacco. In other words, capital that he gained from investments in slavery he used to finance related products such as tobacco and sugar production.

Oswald was also associated with a group of Scottish entrepreneurs in London who assisted each other financially, sharing their investments to spread the risk and ensure more reliable and consistent profits.

His London base was at Philpot Lane in the City of London, but his vast fortune enabled him to buy Auchincruive - an estate in Scotland where he had a large house and an extensive library and art collection.