The tallest buildings in this view were made from the local volcanic dark-coloured rock. They would have contained the Mill House and Boiling House. The sugarcane was carried and floated downstream from the hills behind the plantation buildings to the Mill House. Here, the cane was crushed, powered by a waterwheel turning cogs in the mill. The juice extracted flowed down chutes into the adjacent boiling house where it was boiled several times in large copper pans. Highly skilled enslaved men with the job title of ‘boiler’ did this.

‘Gill’ at Waltham plantation who was a slave driver and boiler was valued at £300 in the 1775 – the second highest of all of the enslaved people. Lowison, the head driver, was valued at £330 (NRS GD267/5/20/1).

This painting was conserved in 2022 with a grant from the Esmée Fairbairn Collections Fund.