The Sugar Barons (72 page)

p. 234

‘I pity them greatly’: H.S. Milford, ed.,
Poetical Works of William Cowper
, OUP, 1950 (4th ed.), 375.

p. 234

‘great Ravages upon the Merchant Ships’: Atkins,
A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West Indies,
186.

p. 234

‘which kept us Plying’: ibid., 191.

p. 235

‘when in drink, to utter some Portuguese or Moorish words’:
Cal Col
1700, no. 400.

p. 235

island governors complained endlessly about the dangers of the sea routes and of the daily increase of ‘pyrates’:
Cal Col
1717–8, no. 271.

p. 235

spared execution on the grounds they were ‘quick with child’:
Cal Col
1720–1, no. 523.

p. 235

a spectacular career that lasted less than three years: Breverton,
Black Bart Roberts
, 272.

p. 235

whose favourite tactic was to maroon the crews of the ships he attacked on deserted islands to die of hunger or thirst: Thomas,
Slave Trade
, 240.

p. 236

‘The Pyrates, tho’ singly Fellows of Courage’: Atkins,
A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil, and the West Indies,
192.

p. 237

‘the pyrates in this Passage were very troublesome to us’: ibid., 263.

p. 237

‘great plenty of trading Goods, and, what more attracted the Eye, a large quantity of Gold Dust’: ibid., 193.

p. 237

‘true Republicans in Disposition … daily increase’: ibid., 243–5.

p. 237

‘prodigious lightnings and thunder … a contagious distemper, fatal for some months through the island’: ibid., 238–41.

p. 238

losing a sixth of its inhabitants to a fever epidemic in 1725: Sheridan,
Sugar and Slavery
, 426.

p. 238

‘too Cold in this place’, he wrote to John Dickinson from Newport in January 1714: Redwood Archive, Redwood Library, Newport.

p. 239

New England came to dominate the supply of provisions, horses and lumber to its key market – the West Indian sugar colonies: James,
Colonial Rhode Island
, 159.

p. 240

‘I have bought you a negro Girle of about nine or ten years of age …’: Byam to Redwood, 15 March 1727, LNHA.

p. 240

‘I would have sent ye girle you desired but …’ Byam to Redwood, 20 July 1728, LNHA.

p. 240

‘supplied by the offspring of those they have already, which increase daily’: James,
Colonial Rhode Island
, 220.

p. 240

by 1732 the population of South Carolina was 14,000 whites and 32,000 blacks: Thomas,
Slave Trade
, 259.

p. 240

to ‘debauch them’: Sheridan,
Sugar and Slavery
, 343.

p. 240

much preferred to its rivals, West Indian rum, English spirits or French brandy: Jones, ‘Rhode Island Slave Trade’, 229.

p. 240

Adult male slaves could be bought for as little as 80 gallons: ibid., 234.

p. 241

20 vessels from Newport alone making the voyage every year, carrying about 1,800 hogsheads of rum. Hedges,
Browns of Providence Plantations
, 70.

p. 241

‘live like Lords, and ride in a Coach and Six’: Sheridan,
Sugar and Slavery
. 430.

p. 241

‘Molasses was an essential ingredient in American Independence’: Adams,
Novangulus
, 290.

p. 241

contrary to their rights as ‘ye King’s natural born subjects’:
Cal Col
1733, no. 79.

p. 241

A slaver owned by the Malbones of Newport: Peterson,
History of Rhode Island
, 103.

p. 242

quickly sent messages to their captains: James Brown letter book in Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence, Box 1, Folder 2,
p. 21
.

p. 242

which they then spent in the Dutch enclave of St Eustatius or on molasses from the French islands: correspondent to the
Barbados Gazette
in 1736, reprinted in Oliver,
Caribbeana
, 2:129.

p. 242

‘35 pare of handcoofs’: Rappleye,
Sons of Providence,
14.

p. 242

‘the father of slaving at Bristol, Rhode Island’: Thomas,
Slave Trade
, 292.

p. 243

‘I fear he will hardly be able to endure such coarse dyet & hard labour as our slaves are put to in this place’: Edward Byam to Redwood, 20 July 1728, LNHA.

p. 243

‘promised a great amendment’: William Hillhouse to Redwood, 4 April 1729, LNHA.

p. 243

by the 1720s had a white population of about 5,000 (with some 18,000 black slaves): Sheridan, ‘Rise of a Colonial Gentry’, 343;
Cal Col
1724–5, no. 260.

p. 243

‘look into his affairs’: Jonas Langford 14 March 1728, LNHA.

p. 243

‘our Island is very sickly’ ‘especially to strangers’: Byam to Redwood, 17 March 1730, LNHA.

p. 244

‘all the merchants refused to advance anything for the West India correspondents’: Ford,
The Commerce of Rhode Island,
38–9.

p. 244

‘of Mr French, Barbados, valued at seventy pounds’: Tomlinson to Redwood, 30 June 1735, LNHA.

p. 245

‘Your spouse was very unwilling they should be sent’: Cheeseborough to Redwood, 27 February 1738, quoted in Donnan,
Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade,
3:134.

p. 245

‘an Unlucky Changeable Beast’: ibid.

p. 246

‘thy wife has beene very much out of order’: Coggeshall to Redwood, 3 February 1739, LNHA.

p. 246

‘You have raised our Expectations of Seeing you’: Cheeseborough to Redwood, 6 February 1739, LNHA.

p. 246

‘your cousin I think was never drunker in his life’: Tomlinson to Redwood, 26 April 1739, LNHA.

p. 246

‘in the Old Condition, Carted up to your Estate, the rest ordinary enough’: Tomlinson to Redwood, 1740 (n.d. fragment), LNHA.

p. 246

‘I am heartilly sorry Pope has againe made you so bad a voyage too and from the Coast of Guinea’: Gunthorpe to Redwood, 22 July 1740, LNHA.

p. 246

‘nineteen slaves unsold’: Pope to Redwood, 24 May 1740, LNHA.

p. 246

‘the people hear in General is very Backward in paying there debts’: Pope to Redwood, 23 June 1740, LNHA.

p. 246

buying his slaves in Antigua or in Rhode Island: Donnan,
Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade,
3:140.

p. 247

the business would be reactivated, under the management of his sons. ibid., 2:152.

p. 248

‘That the Negros here use Naturall (or Diabolical) Magick no planter in Barbados doubts’: Walduck, ‘T. Walduck’s Letters from Barbados’, 148.

p. 248

‘well planted with provisions’:
Cal Col
1702, no. 912.

p. 249

‘rebellious negroes … have been so bold to come down armed and attack our out settlements to Windward’: ibid.

p. 249

Beckford had sent out four parties, one of which, consisting of only 20 men: Craton,
Testing the Chains
, 79.

p. 249

‘the negroes faced our men so long as they had any ammunition left’
Cal Col
1702, no. 978.

p. 249

another got lost in the swamps and a quarter of the men drowned or died of fever: PRO CO 137/18; CO 137/19.

p. 249

‘pretty healthy and might be kept so were it not for rumm’:
Cal Col
1731, no. 202.

p. 249

‘wofull state, some companys having lost more than half their compliment chiefly owing to drunkenness’: ibid., no. 415.

p. 249

a stalemate, exhausting for both sides:
Cal Col
1732, no. 146;
Cal Col
1733, nos. 75, 244.

p. 250

‘The service here is not like that in Flanders or any part of Europe’: Craton,
Testing the Chains
, 83.

p. 251

‘possessed few of the external graces as far as expression and manner were concerned’: Redding,
Memoirs of William Beckford
, 1:21.

p. 251

he fell in love with an unsuitable girl: ibid., 1:17.

p. 251

a ‘strange and contradictory character’: Hackman, ‘William Beckford: The Jamaican Connection’, 24.

p. 251

‘a common soldier’ in the island’s militia: Taylor and Pringle,
Correspondence of William Pitt
, 1:185.

p. 252

seizing a large number of English vessels, including legitimate traders: Long,
History of Jamaica
, 1:293.

p. 252

almost all the ‘sugar names’ – Frye, Tomlinson, Warner and others: 13 October 1737,
Cal Col
1737, no. 540.

p. 252

‘Villainy is inherent to this climate’: Laughton, ‘Jenkins’ Ear’, 742.

p. 252

‘At present we have nothing but Rumours of War’: Wilks to Redwood, 13 October 1739, LNHA.

p. 253

‘Universal dejection prevailed’: Smollett,
An account of the expedition against Carthagene
, 342.

p. 253

during the fighting in Europe at the same time, the British army lost just 8 per cent of its strength to fighting and disease:
TLS
, 30 July 2010,
p. 12
, ‘Black and yellow’ by Gabriel Paquette.

p. 253

in the West Indies, ‘whatever is attempted in that climate must be done
uno impetu
’: 11 September 1758, Taylor and Pringle,
Correspondence of William Pitt
, 1:353.

p. 254

‘damage and disgrace’: Smollett,
An account of the expedition against Carthagene
, 342.

p. 254

‘We flow in Money’:
Gentleman’s Magazine
1744,
p. 393
.

p. 254

‘the People of this Island were intent on nothing so much as encouraging Privateers’: Leslie,
A New and Exact Account of Jamaica
, 305.

p. 254

‘But I was surprised to find that no matters of philosophy were brought upon the carpet’: Chapin,
Rhode Island Privateers in Kings George’s War,
12.

p. 255

Colonel Peter Beckford … had complained about ships from ‘our Northern Plantations’ supplying the Spanish:
Cal Col
1702, no. 733.

p. 255

This money was then taken to St Eustatius or the French islands, where it was used to purchase cheaper sugar or molasses:
Journal
1749–50, 130.

p. 256

he had seen 16 or 17 vessels from the North American colonies brazenly loading and unloading at St Eustatius: Burns,
History of the British West Indies
, 482.

p. 256

‘one or two men-of-war stationed at Rhode Island would be sufficient’:
Journal
1749–50, 131.

p. 256

‘laden with provisions and Naval Stores, who bring back French Rum and Molasses’: Knowles to Newcastle, 20 November 1747, BL Add. MS 32713, fol. 472.

p. 256

‘he should certainly have taken Martinique’: Beer,
British Colonial Policy
, 73n.

p. 256

‘the prosperity of the French Islands and the ruin of our own’:
Journal
1749–50, 136.

p. 257

‘building Batteries & throwing up entrenchments’: Tomlinson to Redwood, 12 June 1744, LNHA.

p. 257

‘We are now in the utmost distress for want of provisions & Lumber of all sorts’ Tomlinson to Redwood, 24 May 1746, LNHA.

p. 257

‘one of the finest gardens I ever saw in my life’:
Bulletin of the Newport Historical Society
45, no. 146 (Spring 1972); Bolhouse, ‘Abraham Redwood, Reluctant Quaker’.

p. 258

hundreds of pounds’ worth of books, paid for from the proceeds of his Antigua sugar: Redwood letter, 11 February 1748, LNHA.

p. 258

‘almost every thing’ was brought ‘in the lumber vessels from America’: Thompson,
Sailor’s Letters
, 107.