Edward Drax

The title page includes: 'The following Instructions are offered to the consideration of proprietors and managers of plantations in Barbadoes by Edwin Lascelles, James Colleton, Edward Drax, Francis Ford, John Brathwaite, John Walter, Wm. Thorpe Holder, Philip Gibbes'. The copy in the Barbados Department of Archives includes the name of John Barney added in script as an author.
Although multiple authorship is given, the first person singular is used throughout. 64 pages.
The sections include: Introduction; Instructions for the Management of a Plantation; Instructions to the Manager; Instructions for the treatment of negroes; Cattle; Horses; Sheep; Hogs; Sugar; A calculation. To ascertain the loss sustained in sugar and rum by waste and pilferage; Terms of agreement with a manager.
Also included is The Instructions of Henry Drax Esq. for the management of Drax Hall and the Irish Hope Plantations to Archibald Johnson, the Manager. [Henry Drax was Edward's older brother.]

The Instructions were written for the management of a plantation of 260 acres of land, of which 160 are cane land. (p. 1) Argued for a kind of ameliorationist case to suggest that the ‘Negroes’ be treated with ‘humanity’. It is written as a guide to good practice rather than as description of actual workings. (pp. 21-31). Drax also recommended that a manager be paid a salary of no more than £100 per year.