A woolen-importer from Yorkshire, Jeremiah Thompson was a major exporter of cotton from New York to Liverpool, and a man with a new idea. In January 1818, he and three partners started a line of packets between New York and Liverpool, which sailed on schedule whether the ships were full or not. Before this, ships had waited weeks to secure new cargoes before setting sail. Thompson and one of his partners, Isaac Wright of Long Island, were Quakers, and he was a member of the New York Manumission Society, established to assist black New Yorkers into freedom. But his packet line helped expand and prolong southern slavery by establishing the cotton trade route that linked New York, southern plantations, and European markets.