Thomas Thistlewood

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Thomas Thistlewood (1721-1786) was a British estate overseer and small landowner in western Jamaica. He wrote a diary, which eventually ran to some 14,000 pages, and this diary became an important historical document on slavery and history of Jamaica. In his diary he describes the brutality he metes out to his slaves:

"He details the daily life of a slave owner and the quite extraordinary levels of brutality he metes out to his slaves; the sexual brutality to the women, and the physical brutality to all of them." [1]

Thomas Thistlewood came to Jamaica from Lincolnshire, England, in 1750. He stayed in Jamaica until his death in 1786. He became the overseer or manager of the Egypt sugar plantation near the small port of Savanna la Mar.

His diary is a unique record of his activities, which reflect a rich and exciting chronicle of plantation life - its people, social life, agricultural techniques, medicinal remedies, and relations between slaves and owners.

[edit] References

• Trevor Burnard, Mastery, Tyranny, and Desire: Thomas Thistlewood and His Slaves in the Anglo-Jamaican World, University of North Carolina Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8078-5525-1
  • Excerpts from the above book
• Douglas Hall, In Miserable Slavery: Thomas Thistlewood in Jamaica, 1750-86, Macmillan, 1999, ISBN 0-333-48030-9

[edit] See also

• Tacky's War

[edit] External links

• An introduction to Thomas Thistlewood’s journal
• Thomas Thistlewood on 'Sales and branding'
• Masters of Their Universe by Ira Berlin, The Nation, 2004, article