How Laura Keene prolonged the African slave trade

[Rsmyth]

In the 1850's a mechanic in Deep River, CT. (Phineas Pratt) invented a lathe that could cut ivory. This machine made the labor intensive job of making products out of elephant tusks very profitable for the small town. Pratt and Read Company began turning out combs, pins, pool balls etc., etc. and of course piano keys, a piano being the ultimate status symbol for every household in America.
Phineas was an abolitionist, but did he turn a blind eye to the source of his material? The ivory was harvested in the interior of Africa and taken hundreds of miles to the coast. Arab slavers guided large trains of slaves, men, women and children, chained together carrying the heavy tusks to the coast where they were loaded on boats sailing from Zanzibar headed for Deep River.
This profitable trade continued for another 50 years to approximately 1900 when it became harder and harder to find ivory and the trade dried up.
How does Laura Keene fit into this? As we all know, she was at Ford's Theater the night Lincoln was shot. She had brought her Pickering piano to the theater with her. From the 1850's on all Pickering pianos were made using keyboards made with ivory keys from Pratt and Read Co. in Deep River, CT.