J.C. Welsh journal

J. C. Welsh’s manuscript journal comprises 120 pages, written in ink, on four sewn but unbound signatures. His journal reports on the physical and cultural challenges of traveling from Boston, Massachusetts, to British Guyana and living there while pursuing legal business in 1817 through 1819.

J. C. Welsh's journal bears witness to the hardships of travel and the difficulties of being away from home. He and his father's departure from Boston in February 1817 on board the brig Halifax was delayed by ice. They were violently ill throughout their sea voyage to Demerara, British Guyana, where they were destined to settle legal business. When there they consumed strong coffee, no easier on their bowels, and were constantly sick with headaches and other ailments. But their greatest trial in Demerara was the anxiety of “obstacles, disappointments, and delays” as they sought to settle the Lincoln estate in the Orphans Chamber. Welsh agonized over the “mud of the law,” and as their legal entanglements dragged into a second year, prayed to God for grace to endure, but truly longed for nothing more than to “get away from this terrible place.”

Demerara proved a cultural challenge as well. The Welshes boarded with missionaries, but found neither Mr. nor Mrs. Elliot took their sermons to heart. Welsh desired not to drink as much as his hosts, and pitied the “vassals of Satan” who partook of the races and balls which were common social events in Demerara. He was ashamed of Mrs. Elliot’s treatment of her eight-year-old servant, horrified at the whipping of a runaway slave, remarked on the sale of a family with nine children for $15,000, and was particularly disturbed when he, as a white man, was the cause of a Creole’s eviction from a church pew. Welsh arrived home in Boston on April 20, 1819, grateful to his Lord for his Yankee privileges.