Letters From An American Farmer

James describes Charles Town (modern-day Charleston, South Carolina) as a place of great wealth, where “the produce of this extensive territory concentrates” and thus is a place that “is called the centre of our beau monde and is always filled with the richest planters in the province, who resort hither in quest of health and pleasure” (151). However, he also highlights the exploitation and abuse that produces this wealth, which remains unacknowledged in the town, asking “[w]hile all is joy, festivity, and happiness in Charles Town, would you imagine that scenes of misery overspread in the country?” (153).

He condemns the refusal of the rich, contented inhabitants of Charles Town to acknowledge the torture on which their luxury is based, stating that “[t]heir ears by habit are become deaf, their hearts hardened; they neither see, hear, nor feel for the woes of their poor slaves, from whose painful labours all their wealth proceeds” (153). He also condemns slavery and the slave trade for stealing human beings from Africa for the profits of white enslavers, declaring that “by virtue of […] gold, wars, murders, and devastations are committed in some harmless, peaceable African neighbourhood where dwelt innocent people” (153).