Texas, its claims to be recognised as an independent power by Great Britain : examined in a series of letters Page: 25 of 58
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severe distress; and BRYAN EDWARDS, the historian of the West
Indies, himself a planter, referring to a subsequent period, said"The
great mass of planters are men of oppressed fortunes, consigned
by debt to unremitting drudgery in the Colonies, with a
hope-which eternally mocks their grasp-of happier days, and a
release from their embarrassments."
In 1792, a Report was prepared on the sugar trade in Jamaica,
by a Committee of the House of Assembly, and confirmed and
printed by its order, which contains the following passage: " In
the course of twenty years, 177 estates in Jamaica have been sold
for the payment of debts, 55 estates have been thrown up, and 92
are still in the hands of creditors; and it appears from a return
nade by the Provost lflarshal, that 80,121 executions, amounting
to 22,563,786 sterling, have been lodged in his office in the course
of twenty years."
In 1805, the Assembly reported again, and, after details of the
most melancholy kind, conclude the sum of their miseries by
stating that "afaitfll detail t lwould have the appearance of a frightftil
caricature." Again, in 1807, they report that "within the
last four or five years, 65 estates had been abandoned, 32 sold
under decrees of chancery, and 115 more respecting which, suits in
chancery were depending, and many more bills preparing." From
these facts, they go on to say, " the House will be able to judge to
what an alarming extent the distresses of the sugar planters have
already reached, and with what accelerated rapidity they are now
increasing, for the sugar estates lately brought to sale, and now in
the Court of Chancery in this island and in England, amount to
about one-fourth of the whole number of the Colony." In 1812,
after stating that "estate after estate has passed into the hands of
mortgagees and creditors, absent from the island, until there are
large districts, whole parishes, in which there is not a single proprietor
of a sugar plantation resident; they add, " the distress
cannot be well aggravated." And again, in 1831, we have them
complaining to the nation and to the parliament, of" The alarming
and unprecelented state of distress in which the whole West India
interest is involved ;" which they said, justified them in asking for
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Scoble, John. Texas, its claims to be recognised as an independent power by Great Britain : examined in a series of letters, book, 1839; London. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6108/m1/25/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .