| Description | These are the legal, business, and personal papers of the Pinney family relating to their estates on Nevis, which they operated as enslaved labour plantations for the production of sugar and sugar-based products such as rum and molasses. The papers also document the Pinneys' interests and investments in other estates and related business in the wider Caribbean, as well as their involvement in the trade of goods, largely between the Caribbean and Britain.
The Caribbean papers have been categorised to reflect the function and content of the documents, with three subseries containing: documents which can be linked to specific Caribbean estates and estate owners (DM58/2/1); documents which can be linked to the Pinneys' wider business in the Caribbean (DM58/2/2); documents which can be linked to the Bristol-based business firms and partnerships of the Pinney family with members of the Tobin, Ames and Case families, which engaged in trade between the Caribbean and Britain (DM58/2/3).
This part of the collection contains the following types of documents: business and personal correspondence; legal papers including deeds, mortgages, sales and wills; plantation and other business accounts; bills and receipts; estate papers including inventories, appraisements of estates, and lists of enslaved people. Included are materials relating to the people enslaved on the Pinney estates and by other enslavers, primarily in bills of sale, property transactions by which enslaved people were also trafficked, or in lists of enslaved people recorded for the purpose of appraising and valuing estates.
Where known and where possible, the names of enslaved people have been recorded in the catalogue descriptions for the Caribbean papers. While in many cases dehumanising, some of the names given to enslaved people may indicate their ethnic heritage and place of birth, while other terms used to describe enslaved people indicate that they may have been of mixed race or born in the Caribbean. The original names and associated terminology have been reproduced in descriptions of relevant documents, with alternative spellings noted where possible. Please note that racist, ableist and dehumanising language is used in many of the documents, primarily in relation to enslaved people, some of which has been reproduced in descriptions through quotations from the original documents. Such language is reproduced for the purpose of accurately documenting the content of the relevant documents. Content notes have been included in the catalogue descriptions to indicate the presence of this language and sensitive subject matter. |