[Littleton, Edward]

Estimate

3,000 - 5,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

The Groans of the Plantations: Or A True Account of Their Grievous and Extreme Sufferings by the Heavy Impositions upon Sugar, and Other Hardships. Relating More Particularly to the Island of Barbados. London: Printed by M. Clark, 1689
Paper, Ink, Leather

4to (8 1/4 x 6 in.; 210 x 152 mm). Title-page discolored and dust-soiled, marginal spotting and staining throughout. Blue marbled paper wrappers.

Literature

Wing L2577; ESTC R36481; Alden-Landis 689/105; Kress 1700; Sabin 3271

Catalogue Note

First edition, and one of the earliest objections to taxation without representation to arise from the British colonies. A judge and one of the leading landowners on Barbados, Littleton took up an impassioned defense of his fellow planters in this pamphlet. He charges that the sugar planters had been brought to brink of insolvency by the requirement to purchase all imports from within the empire and by a new, increased customs duty on sugar at a time when the growers were already having difficulty in meeting the existing tax. Additionally he complains that the monopoly held by the Royal African Company on the slave trade had driven up the price of slaves exponentially. Largely through this pamphlet and his lobbying efforts back in London, the taxes were reduced and the monopolies eliminated.