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Lot 253
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Loyalists from Georgia & Florida Move their Mentioned 143 Slaves to the Bahamas In 1785 - Wow!
Loyalists from Georgia & Florida Move their Mentioned 143 Slaves to the Bahamas In 1785 - Wow!
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Slavery
Nassau, Bahamas, October 12, 1785
Loyalists from Georgia & Florida Move their Mentioned 143 Slaves to the Bahamas In 1785 - Wow!
ALS
[SLAVERY.] William Gamble, Autograph Letter Signed, to James Edward Powell, October 12, 1785, [Nassau, Bahamas]. 1 p., 7.375" x 8.75". General toning; minor tears on folds; soiling on edge and integral leaf; small paper loss on integral leaf.

In this brief letter, former British army officer William Gamble writes to acting governor James Edward Powell asking him to revise a former order regarding providing food for 143 slaves. He sought to deliver flour and pork to Colonel Thomas Brown (1750-1825) of the King's Rangers for 142 slaves and to Captain John McIntosh flour for one slave.

Brown was born in England and immigrated to Georgia in 1774. He established a large plantation and became involved in politics. He opposed the revolutionary movement, and local Sons of Liberty forced him to flee to South Carolina. He fled to British-held East Florida, where the royal governor commissioned him as a lieutenant colonel and authorized him to raise a regiment of mounted rangers. From 1776 to 1780, he coordinated the activities of Tories and their Creek and Cherokee allies against the American revolutionaries. Wounded in September 1780 and captured in Augusta in June 1781, Brown was eventually exchanged and returned to Savannah until the British evacuated that city in July 1782. After Great Britain returned East Florida to Spain, Brown moved to the Bahamas. He first received grants in 1788 for more than 1,000 acres on the island of Abaco, but the soil was unsuitable, so he transferred his slaves to Grand Caicos, where he received grants in 1789 totaling more than 4,700 acres.

McIntosh was a Georgia citizen who owned 2,450 acres when he was banished and his land confiscated for being a Loyalist. He received 880 acres of land on the Caicos islands. He became a planter and an outspoken critic of Governor Dunmore.

Complete Transcript
12th October 1785
Sir/
In the Course of Victualling the Four Ships People yesterday, Your Honours Order of the 1st instant was regularly completed, except to Colo Brown and One Negro of Capt McIntoshes. I therefore return that Order, requesting one as follows
12th October 1785
Deliver Colo Browne six Months Issues for
128 Slaves {Flour. Sixty four Barrels } Completes 12 Months
{Pork. Sixty four Barrells }
14 Slaves for Four Months, Flour, Fourteen Barrels
And to Capt John McIntosh for
1 Slave Four Months, Flour, One Barrel.
Your Honour's
most humble Servant
Wm Gamble Comr

Lieut Govr Powell

Historical Background
After the Revolutionary War, many British Loyalists, especially from Georgia and East Florida, resettled in the Bahamas. Between June 1783 and April 1785, the population of the Bahamas increased by 6,000 to 7,000 people of both races. Some of the Loyalists established plantations on the neighboring Caicos islands.

Loyalist immigrants began an insistent demand for land, provisions, and offices, and organized themselves into the Board of American Loyalists. The organization, led by James Hepburn of North Carolina and Robert Johnston of South Carolina, refused to recognize the authority of royal governor John Maxwell and sent petitions to King George III and various officials in England. Maxwell was recalled to England in 1784, but his successor Lieutenant Governor James Edward Powell soon had the same difficulties with the new American immigrants.

In September 1783, a royal proclamation announced the government's intention to purchase the lands in the Bahamas from the proprietors and gave Lieutenant Governor Powell, then in England, instructions on how to issue these lands to the new settlers. Lord Dunmore (1730-1809), the former royal governor of Virginia, succeeded Powell and served as the royal governor of the Bahamas from 1787 to 1796. During his tenure, the British government issued land grants to American Loyalists, who established cotton plantations. In addition to the slaves they brought with them, the American Loyalists also imported more enslaved people from Africa for labor, but the cotton crops dwindled from insect damage and soil exhaustion.

William Gamble (ca. 1730-1794) was born in England and purchased a commission in the British Army to seek his fortune. He was posted to the American colonies in 1755 and served as a lieutenant in the 44th Regiment of Foot in New York during the French and Indian War. From 1759 to 1761, he served as quartermaster at Albany. After a dispute with another officer, he was court-martialed and cashiered. However, in 1763, he purchased a new commission as ensign in the 15th Regiment of Foot. He served in the Albany area until 1769, while working as a scrivener and creator of tracing boards for certificates. He was a stamp collector under the Stamp Act of 1765, and protestors attacked his house in 1766. In 1770, he purchased a commission as a lieutenant in the 16th Regiment of Foot, and in 1775, he joined the 47th Regiment of Foot as a captain. During the Revolutionary War, he served as a British quartermaster until captured in 1777 and held in Albany. Exchanged for an American officer, he returned to service in 1778 as a major. In 1782, he transferred to Staten Island, where he was commissary of provisions for the 47th Regiment of Foot until it was evacuated to Quebec in 1783. He was stationed in Ireland until his retirement. He used the proceeds from the sale of his commission to settle in the Bahamas. He obtained a land grant on Middle Caicos Island, where he served as a justice of the peace. He died there. He never married and left no direct descendants.

James Edward Powell (1717-1786) was born in Great Britain. He immigrated to South Carolina in 1746 and then settled in Savannah, Georgia, as a merchant. From 1755 to 1775, he served as a member of the governor's council. He also served as a judge advocate in the vice admiralty court and a justice of the peace and commanded a militia unit. In 1774, King George III conveyed two 500-acre tracts of Grove Point between the Grove and Ogeechee rivers in Georgia to Powell. He eventually accumulated more than 6,000 acres of land. Early in the Revolutionary War, Powell was arrested and signed a parole pledging not to take up arms against the revolutionary government and retired to his plantation. In the summer of 1777, after enduring assaults on his home's windows and doors, he and his family left for England. The Georgia government passed a confiscation act in 1778 that specifically mentioned Powell. He remained there until 1781, when he was appointed lieutenant governor and judge of the court of vice-admiralty in the Bahamas. In 1783, he was captured by the Spaniards and returned to England in a cartel with the governor. From March 1785 until his death in February 1786, he served as acting governor of the Bahamas.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 7.375" x 8.75"
  • Medium: ALS

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