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The Irving collection consist of three volumes of outgoing correspondence written from Liverpool, England, and Jamaica, 1809-1816. These volumes are a resource for understanding the mentality of a Jamaican sugar planter during the years following the cessation of the British slave trade.

The Jacob Aemilius Irving Letterbooks consist of three volumes of out-going correspondence written from Liverpool, England, and Jamaica, 1809-1816. These slender volumes are an outstanding resource for understanding the mentality of a Jamaican sugar planter during the years following the cessation of the British slave trade. While there is little information on plantation management, per se, the letters provide considerable insight into the psychology and management of debt. Having inherited a substantial debt as receiver of his father's estate, Irving struggled to settle the family accounts, placing himself in continued conflict with relatives and creditors alike.

Irving's management of his daily business demonstrates how thoroughly his vision of the world was trans-Atlantic. His network of agents, suppliers, friends, and competitors extended not merely to the West Indies, but to America and Britain, as well, and for Irving, the nation clearly straddled the ocean. Intriguingly, the letters suggest the manner in which debt worked to cement Irving's network of relationships, however uneasily -- indebtedness was the mortar binding Irving's familial and commercial lives. To Irving, debt was an inevitable byproduct of successfully maneuvering the sugar trade, and the gambler's mentality implicit in this formulation comes across clearly in the letters to Irving's largest creditor, Joseph Birch, and to his attorney, Alexander Peterkin, and clerk, John Pigot. Of particular interest is an excellent series of letters to and about Jacob's nephew, James, imprisoned for debt at the tender age of 19, admonishing him for profligacy and a lack of concern for his budget and accusing him, at one point, of a conscious design to indebt himself. See especially the letter of 1810 September 13 and the letter to Alexander Peterkin written on 1811 August 6.

The commercial impact of Anglo-American foreign relations and the War of 1812 forms a second, though relatively minor line of interest in the collection.

Finally, the Irving letterbooks are a fine resource for understanding aspects of the mentality and economics of slaveholding in Jamaica. While there is nothing in the collection relating directly to the management of slaves, there is considerable discussion of trading in slaves, their value to the estates, and their status as currency in the Jamaican economy. Among the most intriguing letters is one in which Irving described the departure (in England) of his servant, Peter:

"My Man Peter has left us after long threatening to do so -- indeed I was obliged to [word crossed out: discharge] part with him he had become so idle & fond of company, his services were not worth having -- it is no more than what I always expected -- for as soon as these gentry get to this Country, & get connected with Buckra Woman the fools go mad, & at length when poverty & disease ensue, the press gangs get them, or they become beggars in the streets. I should as soon recommend a Man to bring his horse with him to England as his domestic servant" (1812 March 3 to John Pigot)

In an impassioned letter to Simon Clarke responding to reading an antislavery work (1812 February 26), Irving includes an edgy defence of the slave system against charges that it is antireligious: "Teach them [slaves] morality, and you teach them wisdom. Teach them religion, and you confound their understandings, & render them a prey toEvil-doers!"

This account book documents the financial transactions of the Ractcliff family of Vere, Jamaica, from 1775-1786, as they managed sugar plantations, enslaved laborers, and estate disputes. The Exeter Plantation is the principal nexus of activity, but the volume also relates to Greenwich Plantation and Harmony Hall, all in Vere. The Ractcliffs also had accounts with Rockland Farm, Tom King's Plantation, and Carver Plantation. Information relating to inheritance and estates from the Read and Ractcliff families is also present.

This account book documents the financial transactions of the Ractcliff family of Vere, Jamaica, from 1775-1786, as they managed sugar plantations, enslaved laborers, and estate disputes. The Exeter Plantation is the principal nexus of activity, but the volume also relates to Greenwich Plantation and Harmony Hall, all in Vere. The Ractcliffes had accounts with Rockland Farm, Tom King's Plantation, and Carver Plantation. Information relating to inheritance and estates from the Read and Ractcliff families is also present.

The volume begins with a two-page copy of an inventory of Tristram Ractcliff's estate in Clarendon Parish, prepared according to an order from Edward Trelawny on February 27, 1745. The inventory lists his household furniture and wearing apparel; his bonds, notes and outstanding debts; 28 enslaved men, women, and children; and horses, mares, asses, mules and cattle. Later entries relate to estate accounts of the Mackenzie family, seemingly through Tristram Ractcliff's mother Elizabeth (Mackenzie) Ractcliff, as well as his father's estate (for examples see pp. 17-18, 108, 115).

The volume's daybook accounts (192 numerated pages) begin on August 31, 1775, in Vere, Jamaica, with lists of names, expenses, and the nature of the financial matter, extending through May 17, 1786. The entries can be sporadic, sometimes with several pages recorded in one day before jumping ahead several months and occasionally more than a year between entries. References to a waste book and numerical notations in the margins indicate this daybook was part of a robust financial accounting system.

The volume contains records of routine transactions relating to plantation management, including tax payments; insurance; the purchase and sale of enslaved people; maintenance of equipment; purchase of supplies; freight and wharfage; and payment for specialized laborers like carpenters, penkeepers, overseers, wheelwrights, sawyers, blacksmiths, coopers, masons, bookkeepers, and more. Accounts relating to materiel and labor for sugar production, rum distilling, and mills provide information about the kinds of industry supported by the plantations. Sugar, rum, cotton, corn, and livestock accounting can be found throughout.

Financial documentation relating to enslaved people reveals some details about their lives. Entries relating to medical treatment speak to health care and costs, and accounts relating to food, clothing, and fabric purchases glean light on material conditions. For example, an entry for June 10, 1781 (p. 148), concerns a payment for George Henderson to "negotiate for provisions" for the enslaved laborers, and an entry on October 16, 1784 (p. 153), relates to a dispute over a case of ling fish and two kegs of split pease that were deemed "too dear for Plantation use." The account book also documents slave labor, with many accounts relating to the rent and hire of enslaved laborers and others detailing specific tasks, such as the account with Carver's Plantation for the hire of enslaved people for "Billing, Hoeing & Holeing 12 Acres" and "Clearing & Burning off Acres of Land" (p. 30). Some of the hired enslaved laborers performed skilled jobs like sawyers, masons, tailors, boilers, and bricklayers. Several entries relate to Billy Read, a mixed-race carpenter and wheelwright, who performed work or acquired rum and sundries from the Ractcliffs (see pp. 22, 33, 39, 109, 139, and 148).

Several entries hint at resistance efforts of enslaved men and women as well as the brutal punishments such attempts wrought. An entry for October 18, 1775, lists a payment in regards to "Candis a Runaway Negroe" (p. 11). A number of accounts appear to relate to the trial of Kent, a blacksmith who may have been enslaved (pp. 156 and 171). On October 29, 1784, Exeter Plantation hired a constable "for warning a Jury to try Kent & Quaco" (p. 174), and a payment on January 28, 1784, related to "Kent who was hanged" (p.167). On April 7, 1786, the Ractcliffs sold Quaco, "to be ship'd off for attempting to fire Exeter" (p. 185). An entry for January 11, 1779, reflects payments pertinent to a trial of Fortune and Congo Hector who Ractcliff prosecuted for stealing sheep (p. 118).

Occasional construction accounts and personal purchases shed light on the lifestyles of the Ractcliff family. For example, acquisitions of satin and lace (p. 6), jewelry and clothing (pp. 21-22, 27, 28, 48, 55), and a phaeton (p. 107) provide details about the family's fashion. Meanwhile, accounts like the one dated February 2, 1776, for the framing of a 47 foot long house at the Exeter Plantation with a "Piazza all round" and four windows with shutters, give a glimpse into the built architecture at the plantation (p. 36). The financial affairs of the family are also reflected in their handling of bonds, interest, bonds of exchange, and notes throughout the volume.

Several entries reflect the political and military unrest of the period. One from January 18, 1777 (p. 92), relates to the recovery of insurance for a shipment of sugar that was taken prize by Americans in July 1775. A note in an entry for February 25, 1780 (p. 146), reveals ships sailing in convoys. On January 28, 1784 (p. 167), Ractcliff recorded supplying cattle to the government "in Martial Law."

Additional information in the volume relates to Dorothy (Read) Ractcliff's inheritance of her father, Ennis Read's, estate, including property and enslaved laborers. Accounts refer to legal disputes, seemingly on a contested inheritance. Entries indicate the hiring of lawyers, noting the estate was "being illegally detained" (pp. 82-85, 124), and transactions that relate to serving an ejectment include the replacement of clothing and tack ruined by paint as well as doctors' fees for one of the men who served the ejectment being beaten (p. 103).

The inside front cover bears the inscription "Mary Eleanor Elisabeth Bellairs" who may have lived ca. 1841 to 1910, and appears to have been the great-granddaughter of Mary (Read) Mackenzie and Peter Mackenzie, Tristram Ractcliff's sister-in-law and brother-in-law.