The Price of Freedom Read Online Free PDF

back the letter.
     
     
    February 7, 1696
    Charles Town, Carolina
     
     
    Dear Uncle Thomas
    I hope that this letter finds
you in good health.  I was just remarking to myself that although our
ships frequently sail to Barbados, I have never accompanied one to visit you,
to my shame. However mother often speaks of you and my aunt, and shares news of
your life in Barbados from the letters that my aunt sends. She longs to see you
both and hopes to visit you someday soon. My sister Charlotte will be getting
married soon so perhaps my parents will visit you after the wedding.
    My father has said that he
plans to hand the running of the business over to me. Currently I oversee the
operations while Charles is responsible for the administration. However I have
entered into an arrangement to marry a young lady whose father owns a
plantation in the Low country.  He is no longer able to run it and intends
to turn it over to me after the marriage. I am keen to convert it to rice
production and will need to import slaves, primarily from West Africa, for
labor.
    Since you have used Africans on
your plantation for many years, I desire to seek your advice on their use and
to learn all that I can from you. I have given it much thought and I believe
that I would best be served by a visit to Barbados. I therefore seek to impose
upon your hospitality for about three months to observe your use of Africans in
the production of sugar, as well as your upkeep of them to maximize the return
on your investment, so that I can successfully implement the same upon my
return to Carolina. 
    Mother has said that you and my
aunt have extended an open invitation to visit Barbados at any time, so I will
put my affairs in order here and set sail by the end of the month and should reach
Barbados by the middle of March, barring any unforeseen circumstances.
    I am looking forward to meeting
you and my aunt and of course my cousins, Mary and Rachel. Mother tells me that
William is still in England so it will please me greatly to help you on the
plantation in his absence. Mother will no doubt be sending several gifts for
the family and I will bring you some of Carolina’s best tobacco.
     
     
    Your faithful nephew
    Richard Fairfax
     
     
    Satisfied, he folded the letter,
sealed it with some wax and called a servant to arrange to have it taken down
to their next boat sailing for Barbados together with the one his mother had
written.
    “I saw Jackson heading down to the
harbor with letters,” said Charles coming into the small office a short while
later.
    “Yes, I’ve finally written to our
uncle to let him know that I’m coming to Barbados.  I couldn’t put it off
any longer.”
    “So when are you planning to
sail?”
    “At the end of
the month.   Father will no doubt take over my job, so everything
will be fine.”
    “I’m not worried,” assured
Charles. “How is Ann taking the news?”
    “I haven’t had the opportunity to
mention it to Ann as yet.”
    Charles sputtered, “Not had the
opportunity?  Richard you’ve been thinking about this for over a month!
Don’t you think you should have mentioned it to your fiancée by now?”
    Richard shrugged.  “I didn’t
want to bring it up until I had actually sent the letter to our uncle.” Charles
snorted at the poor excuse.
    The truth was that Richard didn’t
want to deal with his fiancée’s whining so he had delayed telling her as long
as possible. 
    It hadn’t been that much of a
difficulty to convince Ann to marry him, since she had made no secret of the
fact that she had set her heart on him from the time she was a young girl of fourteen
to his eighteen and she always got what she set her heart on. They had
officially become engaged on Christmas Eve the year before, on her twentieth
birthday.
    “I don’t know why you treat Ann so
abominably,” protested Charles, “She’s a beautiful girl, inside and out. She’s
too good for the likes of you.”
    “Then why don’t you