Caribbean History | A collection of three letters, 1773-1831

Caribbean History

A collection of three letters, comprising:

i) William Pitt (a military officer), autograph letter signed, on active service during the Second Maroon War ("...we are now preparing for a second attack...when I think we shall be able to give a better account to these rascals than we hitherto have done.."), complaining of a lack of camp equipment, 3 pages, 4to, Vaughan's Field, Jamaica, 17 August 1795, seal tear

ii) Robert Neilson, letter signed, on shipping sugar, with a postscript warning of the outbreak of a slave revolt ("...Accounts brought yesterday from Martinique represent the Negroe population as in a state of great excitement, so much so as to have commenced burning the Estates, in consequence of which all business was suspended and the Militia called out to protect, as far as they could, the town of St Pierre from their fury..."), 1 page, folio, April 1831, incomplete with final page only

iii) Malcolm Laing, letter signed, to William Philip Perrin, discussing the purchase of slaves for Perrin's estate, 2 pages, 4to, headed "duplicate", Jamaica, 10 January 1773 

SLAVERY AND RESISTANCE. These letters are powerful reminders of the acts of violent resistance that punctuated Caribbean history in the era of slavery.