The fourth chapter ( ‘Performing the West Indies ‘) examines later eighteenth-century comedies depicting British characters in the West Indies during a time of slavery. It begins by examining Richard Cumberland ‘s The West Indian, a play which uses the title character, a rich planter, as an example of benevolence and as a means of demonstrating the positive forms of money and empire management. By contrast, George Colman the Younger ‘s comic opera Inkle and Yarico, written fifteen years later, provides a more problematic vision of England as a slave-holding nation. These difficulties were embodied most noticeably in the character of Inkle, the Englishman who tries to sell his beloved Yarico into slavery. This depiction of a slave-trading Englishman offended audience sensibilities and had to be rewritten both before and after the play ‘s premiere. The chapter concludes with an examination of The Benevolent Planters, a dramatic interlude that presents an uncomfortable defence of British slave-holding practices. Taken together, the three comedies demonstrate the extent to which Britons sought to perceive themselves as part of a benevolent and liberty-loving nation at a time which saw the growth of the abolitionist movement.