Welsh Journals

on the other hand, had been only a relatively small merchant, his son worked his way into wealth and position, marrying the daughter of a well to do and established planter, and then by virtue of very hard work, retiring wealthy, though not nearly as wealthy as the Pennants of North Wales or even the Morris family of Mon- mouthshire, or above all, the English Beckfords. It was the ultimate desire of the British West India planter not only to retire to Britain, but to gain a seat in Parliament, and though Nathaniel Phillips did not succeed in his bid for the seat of Haverfordwest, and there is no mention of the Senior family trying for office, most West India planters in Britain spent fortunes trying to gain a place in Parliament as well as acquiring a sumptuous estate, the Beckfords being the supreme example of landed and political might. A quick generalisation is that political office was desired not only for the chance to keep high the West India interest in Parliament for financial reasons, but also to prevent any attacks on slavery. There was increasing pressure on the slave system in Parliament in the late eighteenth century, and when he returned to Britain Nathaniel Phillips was to be active as a member of the West India Committee in a fortunately unsuccessful if protracted struggle to have the slave trade out- lawed (achieved January i, 1808); although it was not until 1833 that the institution of slavery itself was abolished. In the meantime, as a letter by Henry Senior reveals, by 1815 the institution of slavery, and planter society, had become very degraded indeed. The routine of life on the plantation varied little: early rising and early to bed for the slaves; if the owner was not present, then the manager or attorney together with overseers looked after the daily routine: supervising the slave labour of planting, weeding or preparing for shipment the coffee or the sugar cane. The former required careful drying on barbecues; the latter had to be processed through a mill, a skilful matter and a good deal of the planters' outlay was in the machinery needed: water wheels, acqueducts, windmills, boilers and various other implements. The slaves were clothed and fed, much of their provisions coming from the Eastern colonies of North America, especially dried fish and flour. This was purchased in return for the sale of molasses and rum, even by 1776, forming an irregular trade as Britain dictated to her colonies with whom they could trade, usually reserving this right for the mother country herself. Slaves were brought from ships trading with Africa which might take a cargo of rum and molasses to the American colonies, and then return to Britain, usually to Liverpool. Even during the American revolutionary war the trade with North America was in great demand by West India planters whose loyalty was to their purse rather than to Britain, and after the war the failure to restore the West Indies North America trade probably contributed as much to the decline of the West India Islands as anything else. Both the Seniors and the Phillips were merchants as well as planters, though Nathaniel Phillips soon placed his business in the hands of the agents, who in the accustomed tradition of merchants not only did many items of business for him including those of a personal nature, but also