The Keane papers reached the Virginia Historical Society courtesy of Virginia Bryce (1888–1964): great-great-granddaughter of Michael Keane. Her Richmond neighbor, John Melville Jennings (then director of the society), probably persuaded her to deposit the family papers with the society. In his splendid introduction to An Irishman's Life on the Caribbean Island of St Vincent, 1787–90, an edition of a jewel of this collection, Mark Quintanilla utilizes Michael Keane's letter book to show how members of the Irish gentry diversified their assets by establishing colonial trade networks, cultivated patronage from Anglo-Irish aristocrats, and acted as cross-cultural brokers across the Atlantic world. He cites Keane as an example of a trader in a mature British West India colony who responded to investment opportunities in the Ceded Islands following the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763). By moving from Barbados to St. Vincent, Keane evolved successfully from estate attorney to fully fledged member of the plantocracy, establishing two plantations of 204 acres and 121 slaves as sugar became the island's dominant crop. The letters, however, portray Keane as still recovering from the twin blows of French occupation of St. Vincent (1779–1783) and the great hurricane of 1780. Indebted to London merchant John Pedder, he was obliged to supplement income by acting as estate attorney for John Greg on the main island and for Samuel Span on Union Island, some sixty-five kilometers distant. Relations with both employers were strained, particularly so with Greg, whom Keane described as opinionated, fickle, and capricious. Greg's decision to appoint a co-attorney infuriated Keane, but the roots of their difficulties stem from the informality of their business relationship. Keane received no fixed commission but was instead granted an annual gratuity at Greg's discretion. No bond was posted that was tied to good performance: the two men relied instead on friendship and a shared Irish identity.

The letters also document difficult familial relationships. Keane became estranged from his wife, Esther Casey, in 1767 shortly after the birth of their only child, Hugh Perry Keane. Quintanilla suggests the breach was linked to extramarital relationships with women of color on Barbados. At the opening of the letter book, the nineteen-year-old Hugh had not seen his father for nearly a decade and was also separated from his mother, who had returned to live with her family in Cork. As a boy he was sent to Harrow for his education and then to St. John's College, Cambridge, to prepare for a legal career. Although regarding Hugh as honorable and generous, Keane was critical of his son's extravagance and inattention to study, lambasting him for “hunting, dancing, and other dissipations at a time too the most material and critical in his life” (153). A plan to place his son at one of the Inns of Court was abandoned in preference to bringing him out to St Vincent, where under a watchful eye “he shall work for his bread in future” (162). In November 1788, Hugh was reunited briefly with his father on the island before returning to England to complete his degree and training. While the letters portray matters from Keane's perspective, the Virginia Historical Society's collection includes Hugh's own diaries. Entries record some drinking and occasionally hunting, but also document his interest in art, literature, and science in addition to time spent in the office, meeting his father's business associates, and reading. Conscious that he would soon be going out to the Caribbean permanently, in 1789 Hugh arranged a visit to Ireland that incurred the disapproval of his father. The diary records how he “had the long-wished for Happiness of seeing my Mother,” how “Mother comb'd my Head,” and how Hugh gave Esther Casey money to help meet her “house expenses” (Virginal Historical Society, MSS 1 K197 a 3). Keane's own correspondence castigated Hugh for the unnecessary cost of maintaining a mare, yet records how the father kept racehorses, despite promising Pedder that he would dispose of them, and entered into wagers with other planters at considerable stakes.

In the correspondence, casual references are made to the possibility of sudden death from fever or to the risk of a calamitous hurricane strike. There are also portents of what the next decade would bring: the plight of the native Caribs leading to the Second Carib War (1795–1797); uprisings on Martinique and St. Lucia following the French Revolution; and the mischief of “Zealots in England” campaigning to abolish the slave trade (75). Yet the domestic framing of such momentous issues is striking: “the great riots and tumults” on Martinique, for example, interfering with plans to indenture a mixed-race enslaved boy to hairdressing. This edition is invaluable for its insights into plantation management. Keane's affairs will also interest legal historians studying the distinction between slaves as real estate and chattels, and the Courts of Vice Admiralty. There are useful details of slave hiring arrangements, and the health and diet of enslaved persons. Quintanilla's scholarship is impressive: the mini-biographies of planters, index, and bibliography are especially good. There are a few points to note. The Joe, or half-Johannes, was a gold coin not a unit of exchange (the term Joannes appearing in the source). Alexander Watt resided at Muggerhanger Hall in Bedfordshire, rather than Huggerhanger or Muggenhangey. Most likely, “the very curious animal . . . brought from Augustinea up the River Orinoko . . . of the amphibious kind” was an Amazonian manatee. Samuel Span's Union estate was heavily mortgaged, yet Keane thought a rise in cotton prices and bumper crop might pay off the debt. The pest threatening the plantation was not the cochineal scale insect but la chenille du cotonnier, or cotton caterpillar. Keane's reference to “the Ormskirk medicine for the bite of mad dogs” (156) is passed over without comment, but it is unusual to encounter the remedy for rabies in a Caribbean context. Undoubtedly, this is a source that many historians of the Caribbean will wish to read, and Quintanilla has performed an inestimable service in making it more widely available.