ALS to Hon. James Wilson regarding his plantation Cane Grove on St Vincent.

£950 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

An interesting letter from John McFee, manager of James Wilson’s estate, Cane Grove, on St Vincent. The letter gives insight into some of the planter class’s concerns in the West Indies in the early nineteenth century, five years before the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. At this time, though the transatlantic slave trade had been outlawed, the plantations continued to operate using the forced labour of enslaved workers. McFee begins by listing the goods sent back to England on the Brig Janet and encourages Wilson to consolidate his sugar shipments on the regular ship coming out to the bay. There were instances of “plunderage” on the local droghers (coasting vessels) and McFee outlines a recent instance when he discovered 220 pounds of Wilson’s sugar concealed on the sloop Triangle and the subsequent measure of sending “a trustworthy person” to accompany the sugar. The calculated deployment of the year’s sugar crop is at the forefront if McFee’s mind: “Permit me to suggest to you, to dispose of your early sugars (particularly what goes home in the Appolo Janet ) as soon as possible, our early canes at the beginning of the crop, was not by any means ripe. Therefore I fear much of the sugar will be soft and loose considerably by keeping it in warehouses in England; I mention this as a necessary hint. You can act as you think most advantageous your own interest; with the assistance of kind providence; we expect to make a large crop, which will harass the negroes greatly in taking

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