SD1252. Joshua Rowe to Edward Moulton-Barrett (father)
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 12, 371 (in part).
Montego Bay
8 March ’46
My dear Sir:
Having stopt at The Retreat, in our way here for the Court, Samuels asked me to write to you, about the rent of the negro houses—he says that 2/ a week is more than the negroes can afford to pay, as the ground no longer yields a crop of provisions which will make them to provide for themselves such edibles as they require, & to sell the surplus to help them towards the payment of their rent—& out of their labor they cannot make it—he says that insisting on 2/ a week is driving off the property all the good people & that it is very desirable there should be located some, on whom he could rely, in a case of emergency, such as fire &c. he thinks that if you would consent to reduce the rent to 1/ a week to all those who work on the farm, he cd keep those who are still there. There are a good many panes of glass & window |lines| broken there which, for the protection of the house, should be mended—yet the panes uppermost in good order at the suffering from want of rain, fountain lady the ponds, which are lower than I ever saw them– I gathered from a conversation, I have with Capt. Boott a short time ago in town, that you have some intention to place your properties (Cinnamon Hill & the Retreat) under some other person than Mr Jump—should this be the case I can recommend to you a person in whom you can place the utmost confidence & for whose integrity, & skill, as a planter, I can speak positively, not only from my own knowledge, but the opinions of those, in whose employment he has been. He is the son of a |large| farmer in the North of Devon, whom I know, & who sent him to me in ’37—in two years after his arrival Mr Stewart, who was then the Atty for Mr Dawkins, placed him on one of his properties Old Plantation, where he is still, & which he has brot up to a larger crop, & which he manages, I know, to the complete satisfaction of the present Atty. Mr Rose. His name is John Risden, & I need scarcely add, from what I have said, that I feel pretty interested, in his well being, & advancement– If you should not intend to make an alteration in the management of those properties I have named, you may, perhaps, have an opportunity of mentioning my protegé to some of your friends who may require the services of a good planter—one who is very successful in the management of negroes, & whose habits are strictly temperate–
Samuels also asked me to mention to you the state of the old hot-house—it requires to be shingled & in other respects it is in substantial repair—it is a good building & if it is not soon reshingled it will be seriously injured– Samuels says it will take about 10,000 shingles, but I think he has overated the number required–
I am glad to find that the great scheme of Sir Robt Peel will still leave the protection now enjoyed by the Colonies against slave grown sugar; for I cannot think that we could have made our way against Cuba & Brazil with the advantage of slave labor & constant importation of Africans– I do not know if you are favorable to Coolie immigration– I confess that I am not—being here, I am free to confess, that I have heard nothing to satisfy me , that there is so general a want of labor, as to make it [illegible word]—but in the |Sugar| [illegible word] to provide a supply of immigrants at the public expense—it may be that in some parts of the Island there is a difficulty in procuring labor, altho’ I believe that want, of money to pay the laborers, is more common, than want of labor; but still if there is in some districts a paucity of labor that is a local & circumscribed want—which should be supplied, not at the public, but at the expense of the party who is to be benefitted by its arrival– But if immigration is to proceed, we the public |evil|, still the Coolies are not the people who should be brought, if the Island is to be permanently benefitted, for a more miserable looking race of people it is impossible to see, without muscular strength to perform any other than light work, & no three of them being equal to an able bodied negro; besides their habits appear to be roving & unsettled, large bodies of them constantly coming to Spanish Town with complaints well or ill founded I know not, of their Sunday & others, so that the very object of having them on estates, the command of continuous labor, is thus frustrated–
I hope in the spring of next year to be able to visit England, & if there is any thing I can do for you, or any information you may wish, which I can procure, I hope you will not scruple to command me– Lady Rowe joins me in kind regards & believe me
My dear Sir
Yours very truly
J: Rowe
Address, on integral page: E. M. Barrett Esqre / Wimpole St / London.
Docket: Sir J. Rowe / March 8. 1846 / Recd April 10th / Ansd July 15th / Jamaica.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Eton College Library.
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