Career
He resided many years in London. Steele possessed estates in Barbados: Chester"s, Hallett"s and Kendal"son He went in 1780 to manage them himself.
On his own estates he abolished arbitrary punishment, and created courts among the black slaves themselves for the punishment of offences.
He also promoted voluntary labour by offering some wages. In 1789 Steele further, by erecting his estates into manors, and making his slaves copyholders bound to their tenements, and owing rent and personal service which they paid in labour on the demesne lands.
Steele encountered opposition. But on his own estates his system was successful.
He also made efforts to employ the redlegs — the poor white population — and to set up local industries.
Steele died in Barbados on 27 October 1796. Around 1750 Steele married Sarah Osborne, the widow of Robert Osborne who owned a plantation in Barbados. In the 1780s Steele lived with Ann Slatia, a black slave woman, on the Byde Mill estate adjacent to the Kendal estate which he leased, and had two children with her.
These children, themselves slaves, were among Steele"s heirs.
