Dr Graham examines the involvement of some of Ayrshire's social elite in the Caribbean.

He shows how it was commonplace for younger sons to seek their fortunes on the islands of the British Caribbean. If they survived the lethal tropical diseases, which gained for the West Indies the unenviable title of ‘the white man's grave’, the aim was to make money quickly and return home to Scotland with the profits - living out the rest of their lives as members of the landed gentry.

So it was that riches obtained from the slave plantations that fuelled estate purchases and financed agricultural improvement in eighteenth century Scotland.

Further information in the recent publication:

Burns & the Sugar Plantocrats of Ayrshire