AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED, 29 JULY 1788, FROM THE GOVERNOR OF BARBADOS, DAVID PARRY, TO THE LORD BISHOP OF LONDON, BEILBY PORTEUS, CONCERNING THE "INSTRUCTION OF THE SLAVES IN THE DOCTRINES, AND DUTIES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

Barbados, 1788. Folio sheet, folded to [4] pp, each page 7-1/2" x 9-3/8." Entirely in ink manuscript and signed "D. Parry" at the bottom of page [3]. Docketed on page [4]. Split along spine; several fold splits with archival repairs. All text preserved nicely. Good+.

Governor Parry, differing with Barbados's powerful planter class, writes regretfully that the religious instruction of the slaves "is indeed shamefully neglected in the British West India Islands; the advantages that would result from it to the slaves and to their owners must be obvious to the meanest capacity, for without religion and the moral ties of Christianity little honesty can be expected from the one, or Humanity from the other. We may accumulate Laws without end, but if the manners of the People are Vicious, and Corrupt, not all the Penal Laws the most Bigotted, Cruel Inquisitor can invent will bind them."
Porteus, Parry's correspondent, believed that "the Anglican church had a particular duty to convert the slaves on its own plantations. Moreover, he argued that humane treatment should be immediately enforced, regardless of whether the slaves were likely to be emancipated or not" [web site of Brycchan Carey, article on British Abolitionists-- Porteus].