Opium trader Samuel Wadsworth Russell, born in…

Opium trader Samuel Wadsworth Russell, born in Middletown, Connecticut and orphaned at the age of twelve, had neither received any significant inheritance nor attended college.

Instead, he had begun his career as apprentice clerk for a maritime trade merchant, Whittlesley & Alsop, in Middletown, Connecticut, where he had begun learning his skills as a trader.

In 1810, his apprenticeship having ended, he had moved to New York where he hoped to prosper.

In 1812, he had joined Hull & Griswold, a merchant house based in New York but established by investors with family ties in Connecticut.

He had begun traveling on company ships as supercargo and soon began trading on a commission basis, which had enabled him to found his first company, Russell & Company, a commission trader for Hull & Griswold, in his hometown of Middletown, Connecticut.

Attracted by financial prospects, Russell had set out for China, an assured profitable venture.

He had arrived in Canton, China, in 1819, engaging in trade on behalf of the Providence firm of Edward Carrington & Company in various goods and products including opium, an extremely profitable activity despite being outlawed—yet protected by foreign forces.

The profits made by Russell had enabled him to found Russell & Company in Canton, China, in 1824.

Dealing mostly in silks, teas and opium, Russell & Company has prospered, and in 1830, buys out the Perkins opium syndicate, the source of wealth for the Cabot, Cushing, Forbes, Higginson, Lowell and Sturgis families.

Under the auspices of the Russell Company and its British protectors, Connecticut is to become the U.S. center of the opium trade.

Other families involved with Russell include the Coolidges, Delanos, Forbeses, and Sturgises of Massachusetts, the Alsops of Connecticut, and the Lows of New York.