What was called the British Caribbean or British West Indies eventually came to include two foot-hold colonies on the coasts of Latin America, British Honduras (now Belize) and British Guiana (now Guyana). The latter was an amalgamation of three regions originally administered separately as Demerara, Berbice and Essequibo, all of them seized from the Dutch along with Suriname which was returned in 1816. The climate and terrain were unfavourable but for those determined there were virgin land opportunities to create sugar, coffee and cotton plantations worked by slaves. Those attracted to the prospect would need to be adventurers or desperate and they would not necessarily be nice people. Nor did they always succeed in making money; they might die of disease, fail from inability to get properly organised, or be affected adversely by bad weather, slave revolts or wars which disrupted business. If absentee, they would be reliant on local agents and managers who might not work hard for their interests.
The most successful were those who worked
as a family group and having brothers was a great asset. Ideally, you would
have one or two on the ground in the colony in daily overall control of
plantations and another one or two at home to manage finances and the reception
and onward sale of colonial produce. As historical chance would have it,
Highland Scots affected by the aftermath of the 1745 rebellion saw
opportunities in these new colonies and seized them. David Alston in his Slaves
and Highlanders (2021) provides a detailed history of the families who
exploited those opportunities, both those who were successful and those who
failed. Both the sender and recipient of this letter appear in his book.
The life of the recipient, William McBean
(1776-1822) currently at Tomatin, the family home near Inverness, and shortly
to die there indicates something of the complexity of slavery and its
afterlife. He had written a will in Demerara in 1812, accepted as valid in
Scotland when he died. In it he bequeaths to “my Brother Lachlan McBean of this
Colony the negroe woman Cornelia with all her children male and female, in
trust, and for behalf of the colored Boy Duncan son to Elizabeth Game, and it
is my will that he hold them as Guardian for the said Boy or dispose of them
for behalf as he may see most for the benefit of said Boy Duncan. Fourthly, I
give and bequeath to the free colored woman Elizabeth Game all the furniture
and wearing apparel I may be possessed of at the time of my Death”.
Elizabeth Game already had use of the
slaves before Lachlan’s death in 1820 when she inherited them but defaulted on
providing support for the son Duncan. From David Alston’s work it seems that
the slaves later passed to the “colored Boy” Duncan’s ownership and that in the
1830s he claimed compensation for loss of seven slaves, about the right number
for those originally placed in trust for his benefit. But where this Duncan
passed his life and what he did is unknown to me.
Alexander Cameron’s mother was William
McBean’s sister. So here the nephew is writing to the uncle. Born before 1764
to a tenant farmer he started out his Caribbean career in the Virgin Islands
before moving to Suriname from where in 1804 David Alston quotes him claiming
to be working “on a fairly extensive scale and as far as I have gone my
prospects are favourable”. In this 1819 letter he is writing from Perth but
later returned again to Suriname and died there in December 1821, leaving four
plantations and 550 slaves to his brothers and nephews; in 1818 his own son had
drowned in Suriname’s main river the Nickerie.
In the letter Alexander refers to his brothers Donald and Lachlan as
engaged in common business. Slavery in the Dutch colonies including Suriname
was not abolished until 1863 when, as in Britain, compensation was paid to
dispossessed owners.
The most interesting element in this letter
is its final paragraph where Alexander Cameron writes that in the recent past
“My Negroes” have been inoculated against smallpox with vaccine matter sent out
from Scotland and who may thus have survived the recent epidemic in Suriname
which claimed about 10 000 lives.
*
Transcription
Addressed to: William McBean
Esquire Tomatin Inverness
Datelined: Perth 30th Nov
1819
My Dear Mac
I Received yours of the 21st
Inst. a few days ago and I was happy to learn by it our friends at the neat
little Cottage was getting better. I had a letter since from Robert [ …] to say that they almost well and
that the young Ladies had gone to the Christening of a nephew of yours where no
doubt you would have escorted them & where I hope you were more fortunate
than I was on my last trip to Glasgow where instead of feasting as usual in
that once hospitable city I was almost Slawed [?] from similar cause. Mr
Smith invited me to dine with him but on the day appointed sent me a card to
say “I am sorry I cannot have the pleasure of seeing you to day Mrs Smith
having been delivered of a Boy this morning”. A few days after Mr Murray
invited me to dine with him But when the day came I rec’d a note to say, “I am
sorry I cannot have the pleasure of Receiving you today Mrs Murray was
delivered of a Son” and your Brother[ ….] is likely to treat me soon in the same way. I
have known people call’d to an accounts for less provocation. But as you are
comeing this way soon I will be guided by your direction certain that you will procure for me due …..
I hope you will come in time … we may … and fix the times.
The failure of Messrs Colin Campbell &
Co put it out of my power completely to get money from them to pay the debt due
by my Brother Donald to Mr [Lachlan]
McBean’s children either upon my Brothers account or my own although they
were under engagements to both. I trust however that no great inconvenience can
arise for the present and I hope to make some arrangements for my Brother soon
to enable him to pay off the whole and I think that whatever extra Interests
for life Insurance John [McBean] is obliged to pay in the East Indies my
Brother ought to refund him.
Pray drop me a line to say when I may
expect you here you will pay my poor sister what you think is right. My
intention is to allow her £3 per month and pay Rent besides. The times are
dreadfully hard both upon High & low Rich & poor. But trust this will
mend soon.
The Regent arrived from Nickerie [Suriname’s Atlantic port] at Port
Glasgow on the 27th Inst. She
brings me letters from my Brother Lachlan 7th October and I had the
good fortune to escape the dreadful devastation of the small pox in that Colony
which swept off a large portion of the population at least one Tenth of
the whole My negroes young & old were Innoculated [with] vaccine
matter which I sent out in April last and which I trust will … prove an antidote. My Brother says “The
population on the Coast is increasing fast. Your brother Donald has commenced
in company with Mr Ferrier and Mr McBean has commenced [sic]
I am my Dear Mac Yours truly Alexr. Cameron
*
Acknowlewdment and Refrences
David
Alston has detailed biographies of both McBean and Cameron at his
spanglefish.com website; the families also appear in his book Slaves and
Highlanders (2021)
Dr Richard
Forty conducted extensive research to track down the son Duncan without success
but provided the wording of his father’s Will which I quote.
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