To John Adams from George Joy, 12 July 1790
From George Joy
Monday 12th: July 1790
Mr: Joy presents respectful Compliments to the Vice-President and takes the liberty to hand him a sample of American made sugar which he had put up in Philadelphia for that purpose— Mr: J. is well acquainted with the Gentn: concern’d in promoting this valuable Manufacture and can with Confidence assure Mr: Adams that the sample now sent is the genuine product of the American Maple—1
Judging as well from the Number of Boilers that have been order’d as from other Circumstances Mr: J. is also persuaded that a great increase of the Article may be reasonably expected.—
RC (Adams Papers); endorsed by CA: “Mr Joy July 12— 90.”
1. Merchant George Joy (ca. 1776–1834) was the scion of a loyalist family that left Boston in 1776 and eventually resettled in London. His supplier was Quaker merchant Henry Drinker, who established a 3,000-acre farm and maple sugar business in eastern Pennsylvania, providing an alternative to the West Indian cane sugar that relied on enslaved labor. By 1795, many of Drinker’s investors had withdrawn from the costly project, and his venture failed (Bradford Perkins, “George Joy, American Propagandist at London, 1805–1815,” , 34:191 [June 1961]; Extracts from the Journal of Elizabeth Drinker, From 1759 to 1807, ed. Henry D. Biddle, Phila., 1889, p. 220; David W. Maxey, “The Union Farm: Henry Drinker’s Experiment in Deriving Profit from Virtue,” , 107:612, 613, 617, 628 [Oct. 1983]).