Free The Price of Freedom by Donna Every

when
my father first bought the plantation. I had to sell a lot when I took over, to
settle debts but I was able to keep a handful and a few indentured servants and
as soon as the plantation began to prosper again, I started to replenish my
stock of slaves."
    "As I wrote in my letter when
my fiancée and I marry I will be running her father's plantation and I plan to
buy some when I introduce rice. I believe that rice will be to Carolina what
sugar has been to Barbados." His uncle nodded, pleased with Richard’s
vision and insight. "I've heard that slaves from the West Coast of Africa
know how to cultivate rice. That's mainly why I came to Barbados. To learn as
much as I can from you about what to look for when I'm buying slaves, what is a
good price to pay, how best to maintain them and that kind of thing."
    "Well I can certainly help
you there. I'll take you with me to the slave market next time I go so that you
can see for yourself how to select and you can learn everything else here on
the plantation."
    "Are you able to use them for
jobs other than field work and the house? Some people say that they are not
very intelligent."
    "That has not been my
finding. Jethro is an excellent carpenter and I've got a boiler who works in my
boiler room that is so good I wouldn't even sell him for £300 and I've been
offered that much for him."
    Richard was impressed and his
respect for his uncle went up another notch. His uncle was obviously wealthier
than he thought if he could refuse £300 for a slave.
    "I've also got some
intelligent girls in the house. Deborah, for one, can read and write. Her
mother, Sarah, was the girls' nanny and they all came up together so when we
had tutors for them, I think Deborah learned at the same time. However we don't
encourage that as a rule."
    "It's against the law to
teach slaves to read and write in Carolina and Virginia.”
    “The more they’re able to
communicate with each other, the greater the threat of a revolt.  We live
in constant fear of that in Barbados. We’ve had several attempts over the years
but they were discovered before they could be carried out and the leaders were
executed.  The last one was just four years ago and it was very well
organized but two of the leaders were overheard talking about it and were
arrested and convinced to give the names of others who were involved. After
that we’ve had to severely restrict the movement of our slaves, for our own
safety.”
    “I guess that is the risk of using
slaves; they will eventually outnumber us.  We’ve not got to that point
yet in Carolina but I can foresee that happening as more of us get into rice
and need their labor.”
    "What's life like in
Carolina?" asked his uncle.
    "It’s pretty good. Probably not as grand as it is here though, at least not yet. In terms of our business, we've had some challenges with pirates but we're
still doing well. A few planters have started cultivating rice and it’s doing
better than they expected, I believe, and we’ve just introduced the latest
slave code which has been adopted from the Barbados code since the number of
slaves being imported has grown tremendously."
    "Yes I heard that,” his uncle
confirmed. “We’ve had our share of challenges here as well.  The price of
sugar has dropped significantly since the 50’s but fortunately as the retail
price has decreased in England, the demand has increased and people are using
five times as much sugar as they were using before.   The introduction of coffee and tea has helped
sales as well since they need sugar to make them palatable. So what we’ve lost
in price, we’ve been able to make up in volume.”
    “I’ve told my father that we need
to diversify so that we’re not at the mercy of any one line of business.”
    “Yes, which is why I’ve started
distilling rum, and I’ve got an interest in a ship. I definitely agree that
diversification is the key.” 
    “That is why I want to get into
rice cultivation which will