_Williamsburg, October 24._
N.B. The Plate is lodged with Mr. Craig, and may be seen by any
inclinable to purchase.
James did not attempt to sell the plantation itself or the slaves, but
evidently sought to reestablish Marlborough on an efficient and
profitable basis. That he failed to do so is brought out in a letter
that George Mason wrote to George Washington on December 21, 1773. In it
is expressed the whole tragic sequence of debt compounding debt in the
plantation economy and the insurmountable burden of inherited
obligations:
The embarrass'd Situation of my Friend Mr. Jas. Mercer's Affairs
gives Me much more Concern than Surprize. I always feared that his
Aversion to selling the Lands & Slaves, in Expectation of paying
the Debts with the Crops & Profits of the Estate, whilst a heavy
Interest was still accumulating, wou'd be attended with bad
Consequences, independent of his Brother's Difficulties in England;
having never, in a single Instance, seen these sort of Delays
answer the Hopes of the Debtor. When Colo. [George] Mercer was
first married, & thought in affluent circumstances by his Friends
here, considerable purchases of Slaves were made for Him, at high
prices (& I believe mostly upon Credit) which must now be sold at
much less than the cost: He was originally burthened with a
proportionable part of his Father's Debts: most of which, as well
as the old Gentleman's other Debts, are not only still unpaid, but
must be greatly increased by Interest; so that even if Colo. Mercer
had not incurr'd a large Debt in England, He wou'd have found his
Affairs here in a disagreeable Situation. I have Bye me Mr. James
Mercer's Title-Papers for his Lands on Pohick Run & on Four-mile
Run, in this County; which I have hitherto endeavoured to sell for
Him in Vain: for as he Left the Price entirely to Me, I cou'd not
take less for them than if they had been my own.[142]