Caribbean History | Archive of papers relating to the Galways Plantation, Montserrat, 1780-1830s

Caribbean History—Montserrat

Archive of papers relating to the Galways Sugar Plantation during the slavery era

including a valuation of the estate in 1782 with each enslaved person listed; four lists of "Negroes, Stock Etc", 1792-96, giving the names of each enslaved person; extensive estate correspondence by agents in Monserrat reporting on conditions on the estate ("...the Weather has been uncommonly dry on this side of the Island...not only the present Crop has on many Estates been reduced one half, but the next Years Crop must be entirely ruined if we have not rain very soon..."[1791]), management, provisioning, sales and other related financial matters; detailed estate accounts, invoices and sale records, recording sugar production and the estate's expenditures (taxation, provisions, etc); c.18 weekly labour records signed by overseer; correspondence and papers relating to the appraisal of the estate prior to a planned sale in c.1828 ("...It is not usual to value the Slaves in money - but to take an exact list of them with their ages, sex, employment and health, and at the end of the term we are bound to deliver an equal number and equally effective..."); c.130 items in all, several hundred of pages, chiefly folio and 4to, some wrappers with postal marks, 1782-1833 (mostly before 1800), occasional wear or staining, but generally sound

"...From Monseratt I think I may fairly congratulate you on making the only saving Crop in that Island - I find Ninety h[ogs]h[ea]ds Sugar will be shipt which on a moderate Calculation will nett You more than any Crop You ever had from thence. You are also fortunate to get the Stores that were taken & recaptured - & to have the Ship sent down from Antigua to lead & bring from Galwey..." (John Willet to J.T. Batt, 3 July 1804)

AN IMPORTANT ARCHIVE PRESERVING EXTENSIVE DETAIL OF THE FUNCTIONING OF A CARIBBEAN SUGAR PLANTATION IN THE ERA OF SLAVERY. Galways plantation on the mountainous southern coast of Montserrat was established in the 17th century and was first worked by the Irish indentured labourers who gave it its name, although this labour force soon gave way to African slaves. During the period covered by the current archive Galways plantation was owned by the West India merchant James Neave, son of the founder of the London firm Neave and Willett, and then, after Neave's death in 1794, his daughter Susan, who married the prominent lawyer John Thomas Batt. She still owned the estate on emancipation and was awarded £2588 in compensation when 157 enslaved persons on the estate were granted their freedom. Extensive archaeological remains of the Georgian estate buildings were preserved in the montains of southern Montserrat until the disastrous volcanic eruptions from the 1990s onwards.

The owners of the plantation, like so many others, were absent in Britain, as a consequence of which there were regular letters written from Montserrat by estate managers and other representatives providing regular updates on the state of the plantation. Details of the estate itself are provided along with updates on the sugar harvest, market conditions, and the dangers of shipping across the Atlantic (especially during the Napoleonic Wars). The enslaved workers are of course described as chattels throughout the archive.

PROVENANCE:

Sotheby's, London, 19 December 2000, lot 33