A depiction of The Belle Estate in Barbados. This estate was first owned in 1641 by Phillip Bell, then governor of the island. It was quickly established as a sugar plantation. It was owned by a number of planters before being purchased for £23,000 in 1780 by Daniel Lascelles (whose family became the Earls of Harewood) in part payment of a debt owed by the estate’s previous owner. Lascelles set about improving production on the estate, and continued to expand the enslaved population, which reached 299 in 1832. By the time of the end of slavery there were still 291 slaves at Belle, all of whom were emancipated in 1838, around the date of this sketch. The activities of the planters seem remarkably similar to the 1807 caricature of planter society by James Sayers (Cat.524). Although the sketch suggests a lack of activity on the estate, it continued to be productive, and was owned by the Lascelles family until 1970, four years after Barbados gained its independence.