The Price of Freedom Read Online Free PDF Page A

objection to Ann as
such. She was quite an attractive girl and he knew that she had been smitten
with him for years. If he married her he could run the plantation without
having to buy land and he could instead take the money and invest it in
clearing the property to plant rice and buy slaves. He knew that he could make
it successful and show his father that he was right about rice.
    Richard smiled. "That would
be good," he agreed. “I could invest the money into converting the
plantation if he agrees. I’ll ask her father permission to court her right away
and I'm sure that we will be able to announce our engagement by
Christmas."
    "Good man," his father
praised, slapping him on the shoulder.
    Richard was anxious to talk to Ben
Carlisle as soon as possible. Since he was no longer able to run the plantation
himself he would probably allow him to implement whatever changes he wanted,
especially since he was willing to invest in it.
    His juices began to flow in
anticipation. He needed to learn about using Africans for labor, and although
many planters used them in Carolina, including Ben, he preferred to go to where
they had been using slaves for decades: Barbados.
    Richard’s father, his father’s
sister Elizabeth and her husband Thomas had travelled to Barbados together,
where Thomas took over the running of his father’s large sugar plantation which
had been mismanaged for years. However land was by then becoming very scarce
and his father, James, had been unable to secure a sizeable portion and had decided
to go on to Carolina with a group of Barbadian Adventurers to help with the
colonization.
    Land was plentiful in Carolina but
was being distributed based on the number of family members and slaves or
servants owned or brought into the colony. Having no slaves of his own, and
seeing an opportunity to ship goods between England, Barbados and Carolina,
James had bought two sloops with his money, hired some able sea men and began
to trade.  He sent for his fiancée, Mary, from England and they had married
early in 1671 and had Richard later the same year.
    The first Navigation Act which
legislated that produce from the colonies could only be shipped to England in
vessels owned by English or colonists boosted their revenue considerably in the
early days and they were able to expand to their current fleet of five ships
which traded not only with England but with several of the islands, primarily
Barbados which was like Carolina’s mother land.
    They had an agent in Barbados
whose job was to ship sugar and rum to Carolina and handle the lumber, pipe
staves, pitch, tar, beef and corn that they exported to Barbados. However
Richard had been somewhat dissatisfied with the agent’s performance for several
months now and would use the opportunity to meet with him while he was in
Barbados.
    It would probably be more
beneficial to go in the first months of the New Year. That would give him time
to begin courting Ann and get his future father-in-law to agree to his
suggestion before he left for Barbados. If he stayed there at least three
months he should be able to see the canes harvested and processed into sugar as
well.
    For the first time in a long while
he began to feel excited. He would talk to Ben Carlisle that very day. He would
keep his plan to go to Barbados quiet until next year to avoid any opposition
to the plan. His aunt told his mother, who she corresponded with, that they
were welcome to visit any time and he would certainly take her up on the offer.
It was shameful that they had boats which sailed to and from Barbados
frequently and they had never taken the time to visit the island.
     

     
     
    Richard replaced the quill in the
inkwell on his desk, glad that the chore had been completed. Letter writing and
record keeping were a bane to him so he preferred to leave them to his brother
Charles; however this was one that he had to deal with himself. He waited a
minute for the last of the ink to dry and then read