The Sugar Barons
Page 47
I am much indebted to the staff of a number of local and national archives in the UK including: the British Library, especially the staff of the Rare Books and Manuscripts reading rooms; the Bodleian Library in Oxford, in particular Lucy McCann; the Public Records Office and the county archives of Sussex and Lincolnshire. I am indebted for help with picture research to the brilliant staff of the National Portrait Gallery in London. In the United States, I was given valuable assistance by Kim Nusco in the John Carter Brown Library, Bert Lippincott at the Newport Historical Society, and by the staffs of the Rhode Island Historical Society and the Redwood Library. From Jamaica I would like to thank John Aarons, Audene Brooks at the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, George Faria, Tony Hart, Geoffrey and Patricia Pinto, as well as all at the National Library, the National Archives in Spanish Town and the Jamaica Institute. Special thanks to the late, much-missed Ed Kritzler, who showed me another world in Roaring River, Westmoreland. In Barbados, I was lucky enough to enjoy the enthusiastic support and local historical expertise of Mary Gleadall, and the assistance of Joan Braithwaite at the Barbados Museum archives, and of the staff of the National Archives at Black Rock.
A thousand thanks to Professor Barbara Bush for her careful checking of the manuscript and for her enthusiasm and advice. All errors, remain, of course, my own.
I was immensely lucky that the excellent Martin Brown was able to spend the time to draw the maps for the book, and in my copy-editor Jane Selley, proof-reader Mask Handsley and indexer Andy Armitage.
Indeed, books like this are a team effort. I have been fortunate to have two editors of huge experience and expertise in Tony Whittome at Hutchinson and George Gibson at Walker Books in the US, both of whom took the time to roll up their sleeves and get involved in the nitty-gritty of the manuscript, as well as providing encouragement and advice. I am grateful to Caroline Gascoigne and all at Random House and Walker Books who have helped with publishing this book, and for their patience when the research took much longer than planned. Thanks also to my agents Julian Alexander in London and George Lucas in New York, and to all my friends and family who have read and commented on drafts, in particular my father David Parker, and my father-in-law Paul Swain.
Lastly, much love and thanks to Hannah, Milly, Tom and Ollie, my most special ones.
CHRONOLOGY
1509
Spanish settle Jamaica (Spanish Town established 1523)
1600
Dutch land on St Eustatius
1605
First English attempt to settle in Caribbean at St Lucia, fails because of hostility of Caribs
1607
Lasting English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, established
1618–48
Thirty Years War: England, France and Holland v. Spain
1620
Establishment of Plymouth Colony
1623–4
English settle St Kitts; Dutch attack Bahia in Brazil
1627
English settlers, including James Drax, arrive on Barbados
1628
English and Irish settlers from St Kitts colonise Nevis
1629
English settlement founded on Providence Island
1630–40
Dutch seize Curaçao, Saba, St Martin
1632
English and Irish from St Kitts and Nevis colonise Antigua and Montserrat
1635–45
Dutch control northern Brazil
c. 1635
French settle Martinique and Guadeloupe
1639
Attempted English settlement in Trinidad destroyed by Caribs
1641
Spanish drive English settlers off Providence Island
1642–6
English Civil War
1647
Richard Ligon and Thomas Modyford arrive in Barbados
1650
Willoughby establishes English colony in Surinam
1651
Parliamentary force captures Barbados; First Navigation Act directed against the Dutch
1652
Hurricanes
1652–4
First Dutch War
1654
Dutch and Jews expelled from Brazil
1655
English take Jamaica from Spain
1657
James Drax knighted by Cromwell
1659
Major fire in Bridgetown, destroys more than 200 houses
1660
Restoration of Charles II
1663
Modyford to Jamaica; Barbados grants 4½ per cent duty to the King
1665–7
Second Dutch War
1665
April: Dutch admiral de Ruyter attacks Barbados
1666
French declare war on England, capture St Kitts, plunder Antigua
1667
Hurricane in Barbados; French capture Montserrat; Treaty of Breda grants Surinam to Dutch in return for New York; French conquests returned
1668
Another major fire in Bridgetown; 800+ houses destroyed
1670
Hurricane in Jamaica; Treaty of Madrid: Spain recognises English possession of Jamaica
1671
Quaker George Fox visits Barbados
1672–4
Third Dutch War
1673
Hurricane, fire and slave rebellion in Barbados
1675
Henry Morgan knighted
1685
Monmouth Rebellion in England against James II. Defeated rebels shipped to the West Indies
1688
‘Glorious Revolution’ in England
1688–97
Nine Years War (also known as King William’s War, War of the Grand Alliance, First French and Indian War): England and Spain v. France, ends with Treaty of Ryswick: Spain cedes western region of Hispaniola to France
1689
August: English on St Kitts surrender to French
1690
July: English under Christoper Codrington recapture St Kitts
1691
April: Christoper Codrington leads unsuccessful English invasion of Guadeloupe
1692
June: Port Royal earthquake
1693
April: Christoper Codrington leads unsuccessful English invasion of Martinique
1694
French invasion of Jamaica
1702–13
War of Spanish Succession (Queen Anne’s War). England and Holland v. France and Spain.
1702
July: French in St Kitts capitulate to forces of Christopher Codrington the Younger
1703
May: attempt on Guadeloupe led by Christopher Codrington the Younger abandoned
1706
February and March: French ravage St Kitts and Nevis
1710
December: murder of Governor Daniel Parke in Antigua
1712
July: French lay waste to Montserrat
1713
Treaty of Utrecht. Britain gains French sector of St Kitts, and wins asiento
1722
August: hurricane in Jamaica
1730s
Maroon wars in Jamaica
1733
Molasses Act
1736
Slave revolt plot in Antigua
1739
War of Jenkins’s Ear, Britain v. Spain; becomes war of Austrian Succession until
1748;
also known as King George’s War
1751
George Washington visits Barbados
1756–63
Seven Years War or French and Indian War
1759
May: British occupy Guadeloupe
1760
Tacky’s Revolt in Jamaica
1761
June: British North American colonials capture Dominica
1762
British capture Martinique, Grenada and Havana, Cuba
1763
<
br /> Peace of Paris; British gain Grenada, Tobago and Dominica
1764
Sugar Act
1770s
Revolts in Tobago
1772–3
Carib Wars
1776–83
American Revolutionary War
1776
St Eustatius gives first official salute to American colours
1778
French control St Vincent and the Grenadines
1779
French regain control of Grenada
1781
Rodney sacks St Eustatius
1782
April: Battle of the Saintes off Dominica; Rodney defeats de Grasse; Jamaica saved
1791
Slave uprising in Haiti
1792–1803
French Revolutionary Wars
1794
British capture Port-au-Prince, Haiti
1794–1802
British occupy Martinique
1795
Second Maroon War in Jamaica
1796
Fedon slave revolt in Grenada
1797
Abercromby expedition captures Trinidad, ceded by Spain 1802
1808
Slave trade abolished in British Empire
1816
Bussa’s slave revolt in Barbados
1831
Baptists’ Revolt in Jamaica
1831
Huge hurricane on Barbados
1833
Slave Emancipation Act
1838
Apprenticeships end; true emancipation
1922
Sugar prices collapse
PICTURE SOURCES
Section One:
Tobacco Farmers: engraving by Aldert Meijer, from Carel Allard, Orbis habitabilis oppida et vestitus …, Amsterdam, 1680.
Drax Busts: author photographs, used with permission of the Church of St. Anne and St. Agnes, Gresham Street, London.
Drax Will: National Archives, UK. Prob/11/307, image 355. Used with permission.
St Nicholas Abbey: author photograph
Drax Hall: author photograph
Ruins of Drax factory: author photograph
Barbados Map: from Richard Ligon, A True and Exact History of Barbados, London, 1657.
Duchess of Portsmouth: © National Portrait Gallery, London. NPG 497, used with permission.
Charles II and pineapple: attributed to Hendrick Danckerts. From the collection of the Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondley. Photo: The Arts Council of Great Britain, used with permission.
Battle of Pointe de Sable: From Nellis Crouse, The French Struggle for the West Indies, New York, 1943.
Prospect of Bridgetown: by Samuel Copen, 1695, engraved in London by Johannes Kip. Library of Congress, Washington.
Cane-holing and Sugar Factory: from Noel Deerr, The History of Sugar, London 1949-50.
Colonel Peter Beckford: © National Portrait Gallery, London. NPG D31549, used with permission.
Peter Beckford the Younger: portrait by Benjamin West.
Sir Henry Morgan: from Edmund Ollier, Cassell’s History of the United States, Vol. 1, London, 1874.
Port Royal before and after: from Patrick Browne, A New Map of Jamaica, London 1755.
Earthquake Illustration: From A True and Perfect Relation of that most Sad and Terrible Earthquake at Port Royal in Jamaica, London, 1692.
Christopher Codrington the Younger: © National Portrait Gallery, London. NPG D13732, used with permission.
Old Drawing of Codrington College: from William Mayo, A New & Exact Map of the Island of Barbadoes in America according to An Actual & Accurate Survey, London, 1722.
Codrington College: author photograph
Surinam Planter: engraving by William Blake from John Stedman, Narrative of a Five Year Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, London, 1806
Bartholomew Roberts: from Charles Johnson, Historia der Engelsche Zee-Roovers … In het Engelsch beschreeven door … Amsterdam, 1725.
The Torrid Zone: drawing attributed to Abraham James, 1806. Used with permission of the Wellcome Library, London.
Drax Hall, Jamaica: from Barry Higman, Jamaica Surveyed, Kingston, 1988.
Roaring River: an engraving by Thomas Vivares from a painting by George Robertson. Published by John Boydell, London, 1778.
Beckford miniature by John Smart.
Alderman Beckford: from Boyd Alexander, England’s Wealthiest Son, London, 1962.
Fonthill Splendens: from William Angus, The Seats of the Nobility & Gentry in Great Britain and Wales, London 1787.
William Beckford of Fonthill: portrait by Romney, from James Lees-Milne, William Beckford, Tisbury, 1976.
Ruins of Fonthill: from Boyd Alexander, England’s Wealthiest Son, London, 1962.
Battle of the Saints: painting by Thomas Luny, © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, used with permission.
Model of Slave Ship: © Wilberforce House Museum: Hull Museums. Used with permission.
Slaves packed together: from, R. Walsh, Notices of Brazil, London, 1830.
African insurrection: from Carl Bernard Wadström, An Essay on Colonization, London, 1794.
Hanged Slave: engraving by William Blake from John Stedman, Narrative of a Five Year Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, London, 1806.
Revenge taken by the black army: Library of Congress, Washington.
Haitian Revolution: From Michael Craton, Testing the Chains, New York, 1982.
Gillray Cartoon: © National Portrait Gallery, London. NPG D12417, used with permission.
Anti-Slavery Convention: © National Portrait Gallery, London. NPG 599, used with permission.
While every effort has been made to trace copyright holders, the publisher is happy to correct any omissions in future editions.
Epilogue
THE SINS OF THE FATHERS
‘Jamaican history is characteristic of the beastliness of the true Englishman.’
Karl Marx
The first Drax Hall still stands, facing out over the gently sloping fields of St George’s parish in Barbados. The house, apart from wear and tear, has suffered only minor modifications and damage, most notably the collapse of part of the top floor in one of the island’s many hurricanes. House and estate are still owned by the Drax family, and the extent of the plantation today is almost exactly as it was put together by Sir James by the 1650s.
It remains a sugar plantation, although now its cane is ground and processed at a large factory some distance away; its giant mill, once the largest on the island, stopped operating in 1937. Cane is still planted right up to the edge of the ruined factory, and is looked after and harvested by a black workforce managed by a white overseer. The proprietor, H.W. Drax, comes out to inspect once a year. Sometimes his son and heir, Richard, accompanies him. The overseer, a white Barbadian with an accent almost indistinguishable from his black fellow-countrymen, lives in Drax Hall, but somehow does not inhabit it.
Standing now at Drax Hall, with the Jacobean house looming behind me as I survey the fields of cane, it is impossible not to feel a frisson of excitement, tinged with dread. Here is the exact place where it all began, with James Drax’s secret sugar experiment. The impact of the success of that experiment is difficult to overstate. Barbados became the richest place in America, and spread its successful plantation system all over the region. Families rose and fell; wars were fought. Taste and diet in England were revolutionised. Towns and cities as far away as Newport and Bristol thrived as a result. And, of course, for millions of black Africans, there was ‘miserabell … perpetuall slavery they and Thayer seed’, brutal lives and early deaths.
The success of the sugar industry helped shape the modern world. After all, the landscape of Jamaica was dominated by ‘dark satanic mills’ long before that of England. The far-flung trading system that shifted the sugar and rum to their distant markets and supplied the islands with machinery, raw materials and luxury items, ushered
in an era of global commerce, long supply chains, and ruthless exploitation of human and natural resources. The story of resistance to all this – from displaced Caribs, through enslaved Africans and Nonconformist Christian missionaries to sugar baron traders and businessmen seeking autonomy from regulation and control by the centre – is a parallel story that continues as well.
The legacy of the sugar barons for Britain is about more than just the resulting riches, largely invested at home rather than in the islands, or the national ‘sweet tooth’ that cheaper sugar created. The sugar empire also helped to define the country’s role in the world, and what it meant to be ‘British’. The power of inherited land faded as the British became the masters of industrial processes and the ruthlessly ambitious leaders of a newly created system of global maritime commerce.
At the same time, there remains something contradictory about the story of Britain’s dalliance with plantation slavery. Although England led the Sugar Revolution in the West Indies and became the world’s foremost slave-trader, the same country was also ahead of its rivals in the campaign for free trade and, more crucially, for an end to slavery. The celebration of the British abolition movement has been described as praising someone for putting out a fire he himself created. Nonetheless, it did turn out to be, as Richard Jobson had exclaimed in West Africa in 1618, ‘unEnglish’ to hold other people in slavery, as the ground-breaking triumph of the abolition movement in Britain testifies. In the interim, sensitive Englishmen like Richard Ligon, the third Christopher Codrington and Beckford of Somerly had found themselves painfully conflicted.