Description | Very few letters from Fearon, but several from Jeffries and David Ewart from the Westmoreland and King's Valley plantations, including some informative accounts of the number of slaves. Many references to the passing of the Granville Act for the abolition of the Slave Trade, Ewart (Apr.20) fearsome about the attitude of the many free "negroes" in the colony, while Fearon (April 24) suggests that possibly "fresh negroes" may arrive in neutral vessels. It was not a good sign that Ewart (5 January) had to refer to an abortive plot on the part of the "negroes" to kill all whites in the parish of Portland the Sunday after Christmas (1806). The difficulty would be to convince the "negroes" that though no new "negroes" were to arrive, yet the old ones remained in slavery. |