Throughout this latter part of the century the average holding on the sugar estates was about 180 slaves of all ages.[7] [Footnote 7: Edward Long, _History of Jamaica_, I, 494, Bryan Edwards, _History of the British Colonies in the West Indies_, book II, appendix.] When the final enumeration of slaves in the British possessions was made in the eighteen-thirties there were no single Jamaica holdings reported as large as that of 1598 slaves held by James Blair in Guiana; but occasional items were of a scale ranging from five to eight hundred each, and hundreds numbered above one hundred each.

In many of these instances the same persons are listed as possessing several holdings, with Sir Edward Hyde East particularly notable for the large number of his great squads.

The degree of absenteeism is indicated by the frequency of English nobles, knights and gentlemen among the large proprietors.

Thus the Earl of Balcarres had 474 slaves; the Earl of Harwood 232; the Earl and Countess of Airlie 59; Earl Talbot and Lord Shelborne jointly 79; Lord Seaford 70; Lord Hatherton jointly with Francis Downing, John Benbow and the Right Reverend H.Philpots, Lord Bishop of Exeter, two holdings of 304 and 236 slaves each; and the three Gladstones, Thomas, William and Robert 468 slaves jointly.[8] [Footnote 8: "Accounts of Slave Compensation Claims," in the British official _Account: and Papers, 1837-1838_, vol.XLVIII.] Such an average scale and such a prevalence of absenteeism never prevailed in any other Anglo-American plantation community, largely because none of the other staples required so much manufacturing as sugar did in preparing the crops for market.

As Bryan Edwards wrote in 1793: "the business of sugar planting is a sort of adventure in which the man that engages must engage deeply....