"I have been living on Red River for nearly four years and have never seen or heard of a slave being ill-treated by his master or overseer," wrote John Beynon in Louisiana to a Mr. Jones, of Mathry, in April, 1839. This letter is to be found among the documents held at the Pembrokeshire Record Office in Haverfordwest. With the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade being celebrated in Britain this year, the Pembrokeshire Record Office has prepared a small exhibition on Pembrokeshire's links with the slave trade. The exhibition can be viewed this autumn, in the foyer of the Record Office, which is located within the grounds of Haverfordwest Castle. The exhibition includes an example of the lease of a plantation in Jamaica, lists and valuations of slaves, background information on Pembrokeshire families involved in the slave trade and other documents. Another letter in the exhibition states 'the mischievous missionary sect, the Baptists, which prevail so much in Jamaica, giving such bad advice to the negroes, ought to be checked'. While major maritime cities like Liverpool and Cardiff are well-known for their association with the slave trade, there is no doubt that some of the wealth derived from the trade found its way to Pembrokeshire. The originals of documents relating to the slave trade and its abolition can be seen in the searchroom at the Pembrokeshire Record Office. The record office is open Mondays to Thursdays, 9 am to 4.45 pm (10 am on the first Monday of the month), Fridays 9 am to 4.15 pm and on Saturday, October 6, November 3, and December 1, from 9.30 am to 12.30 pm. Access to both the exhibition and the public searchroom is free of charge.
