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"...[56]pp...Folio. Contemporary three-quarter calf and marbled boards, marbled endpapers...Clipping from the July 15, 1797 issue of the St. James's Chronicle, or the British Evening Post laid in.

A significant account book documenting transactions with several plantations in the West Indies in the last years of (legal) slavery in the British Empire. Possibly belonging to a bookkeeper for a plantation agent/merchant, the manuscript records document debits and credits, noting trade in rum, cattle, flour, sheep, sugar, wine, lumber, oats, and even lottery tickets. There are also two slavery transactions (embedded in larger transactions), both dated July 9, 1832: '...to the sum assumed on A/c of Miss Mary Robertson for the manumission of Thomas a slave belonging to Meldrum [Estate]...assumed the sum on A/c of Miss Bess Urquhart for the freedom of her daughter Nancy...' The account also includes orders for books of magazines, including Blackwood's Magazine, Glasgow Courier, and a copy of J. W. Norie's Epitome of Practical Navigation, acquired for Daniel Polson. There are also expenses for 'repairing the clock' (July 22, 1833), 'Shoeing a horse on his fore feet' (June 24, 1834), and credit related to the 'Hurricane at Barbados' (June 25, 1832).

This book appears to have functioned as a receipt book, and it seems unlikely that it was the master record for the merchant or plantation agent to whom his bookkeeper reported. The transactions are not ordered chronologically or alphabetically. Each set of transactions are headed by a name, although it is not clear how the name is associated with the transactions listed. Finally, there are transactions with the entries 'Remitted to my Parents...' throughout, and a few transactions with entries 'Cash given you...' and 'To your order...' which seems to lack the formality or clarity expected in a ledger. Nevertheless, the hand is professional, strong, and clear through about two-thirds, at which point it changes to a smaller, tighter hand. Corrections are rare, although a few pages have partial pages pasted over previous entries.

A number of individuals and estates recur throughout the volume. As well, a few of the individuals noted are non-resident owners (or trustees or beneficiaries), with addresses in England and Scotland. Notable recurring people include: Alexander George Milne (London), John Dallas, George McLean, William Kirkland, and Simon Fraser. Many of these people owned or held shares in several different estates, sold and bought estates from each other, and were often related through marriage. Estates mentioned include: Harvey Vale, Craigston, Limlair, Beausejour, Dumfries, Belair, Grand Bay, Orange Vale, and Meldrum. The prevalence of Scottish names is due to the large number of Scottish settlers who came to the Caribbean as prospects in Scotland diminished after the Jacobite rebellion and subsequent Highland clearances.

One particularly interesting figure mentioned in the volume is Edward Gibbs, of Edward Gibbs & Co. of Grenada and London. Gibbs was a 'free man of colour' and acted as the London agent of the 'free coloured' community of Grenada. While not larger, the freed community played a significant role in the plantation economy. At the same time, it is likely that most of the owners had not forgotten that Julian Fédon, who led the slave revolt in 1795, was a 'free coloured' Grenadian (his mother was a freed slave from Martinique) who owned a substantial plantation and many slaves.

An intriguing glimpse into the plantation economy of Grenada as slavery was ending." –Description from William Reese Company

Foreword on diary: "'The Belles of Abaco' is a story about two young chicks, Jennie and Malvena who like Cir'ce lured young sailors to the island. They were a couple dolls and the island has never recovered from having these two here. Though their stay was limited to five years, more than likely by some high authority who thought the island worth saving, the island has been a little use since."

"The manuscript memoir vividly details the experiences and life of two young teenager sisters experiencing life in a logging town in the Bahamas at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1906, an American lumber group led by Frederick Weyerhaueser, organized the Bahamas Timber Company and secured a 100-year contract to log the pine operation. Malvena Southmayd was a 19-year old music student at Milton College who decided to move with her family on the great adventure. The Bahamas Timber Company constructed a state-of-the-art sawmill, and built adjacent towns for loggers and mill employees. She writes vividly about the assorted Caribbean foods, including Green Turtle Soup, fried clams, boiled crabs, fish served with grits, or rice, friend plantains, and fruits of guava, mangos, oranges, grapefruits, limes, and even avocados. In addition, the details how the "White" settlement was built on the largest north slope with the saw mill, dry kiln, ice house, and lumber yard, while the "Colored settlement" was constructed on the lower side of the tracks near the docks. She writes of viewing coral beds and tropical fish through glass-bottomed buckets, swimming excursions in bloomer style swimsuits worn with stockings, the Swedes working and living in the Swedish village suffering from tropical diseases and high child mortality, as well as quadrille dances featuring zither, accordion, and mouth organ music, taffy pulling, coconut candies and milk. She makes frequent mention of African-American workers, including one couple named Weir who were recent graduates at the time from Booker T. Washington University working the mill, as well as the boisterous African-American and Bahamian church services. There are several mentions of the courting of Malvena and Jennie by Daniel Dudley Brown, a steam engineer hired by the Bahama Timber Company because of his 'experience in handling Negro logging crews' while working on a mahogany contract in South America prior to landing on shore in the Bahamas. They were married by 1908 and when they returned to the United States for working sawmills in Oregon, they brought with them Malvena's parents and two young girls, Lillie Margaret, and Lola J. The Bahama Timber Company later became the Abaco Lumber Company and continued commercial logging of Caribbean pine until the 1960s when the majority of the lumber had been cut. The Wilson City sawmill shut down in 1945, and moved to other locations on Abaco and later Grand Bahama and Andros." –Description from Buckingham Books

"An important primary source on England's efforts to stamp out the African slave trade, printing many diplomatic exchanges with France, Sardinia, Tuscany, Haiti, and Venezuela. These items report on the illegal traffic, with data on slave ships sailing illegally under the flags of nations that have outlawed the slave trade; the inhumane treatment inflicted on the captured Africans; and material on international Slave Trade Conventions. Palmerston writes, 'The demand for human begins as articles of traffic on the Coast of Africa keeps up among the Africans the practice of war for man-stealing, and occasions an infinite variety of crimes and atrocities." –Description from vendor

A single bound report compiled by Donald J. O'Connor of the Office of Puerto Rico in Washington, D. C. with an appeal on the back cover from the Governor of Puerto Rico, Jesús T. Piñero.

Description on front cover: "Political leader's address on September 24, 1960, at the University of Woodford Square, marking the fourth year of P.N.M.'s first term of office."

"Quarto blank book. 60 spirit-duplicated(?) pages printed in purple ink on both sides of 30 leaves. Many illustrations from commercial or other printed sources, postcards, and one original gelatin silver photograph inserted. Early but not original canvas spine reinforcement and marbled paper-covered boards with 'Panama' hand-inked on the front board...A detailed account of the history, business, and construction of the Panama Canal written during the construction by American crews. Close observations of the construction and conditions obviously made first hand, and concluded while construction of the canal was still underway. while the author remains unknown, it seems he (gender from context) had some knowledge of engineering, as well as a close eye for both the locale and local inhabitants. While the narrator often mentions his physical presence at the construction, likely as a member of the construction crew, he gives very few other hints as to his identity, although a closer reading of the text might reveal additional hints. As the narrative concludes, with a tribute to the men involved in the construction, it is clear that the Canal project was well along but as yet incomplete. The American construction (building on an earlier failed French attempt) occupied the years 1904-1914, the narration informing our attribution of the date to around 1910. However, as with the author's identity, a closer reading could certainly narrow the timeframe of the narrative." –Description from Between the Covers Rare Books, Inc.

"Following the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, in which Great Britain provided for the immediate abolition of slavery in all of its West Indian colonies with a £20m restitution to the slaveowners, a few of their colonies passed their own legislative acts. Only two such acts were separately printed however; St. Kitts and the present one on the island of Dominica. Conforming to the 1833 British parliamentary act, the present act details the newly-formed apprenticeship system as well as stipulations concerning punishments, land ownership, the bearing of arms, etc." --description by Librería de Antaño

A pamphlet issued by the Emergency National Council Against U.S. Intervention in Central America/The Caribbean (ENC).

A pamphlet in tabloid newspaper format, discussing Haiti's first democratic elections in 1990 and the socio-political climate in its aftermath.

A single oversized page with an excerpt from the 1984 novel Abeng by Michelle Cliff, which discusses the aftermath of enslavement and oppression from the British in Jamaica in the 1950s. The excerpt features a description of Nanny, the leader of the Windward Maroons.