This estate, lying in St.John's parish on the southern slope of the Jamaica mountain chain, comprised not only the plantation proper, which had some 560 acres in sugar cane and smaller fields in food and forage crops, but also Spring Garden, a nearby cattle ranch, and Mickleton which was presumably a relay station for the teams hauling the sugar and rum to Port Henderson.

The records, which are available for the years from 1792 to 1796 inclusive, treat the three properties as one establishment.[20] [Footnote 20: These records have been analyzed in U.B.Phillips, "A Jamaica Slave Plantation," in the _American Historical Review_, XIX, 543-558.] The slaves of the estate at the beginning of 1792 numbered 355, apparently all seasoned negroes, of whom 150 were in the main field gang.

But this force was inadequate for the full routine, and in that year "jobbing gangs" from outside were employed at rates from _2s.6d_.to _3s_.

per head per day and at a total cost of L1832, reckoned probably in Jamaican currency which stood at thirty per cent, discount.

In order to relieve the need of this outside labor the management began that year to buy new Africans on a scale considered reckless by all the island authorities.