Mastery, Tyranny, and Desire: Thomas Thistlewood and His Slaves in the Anglo-Jamaican World

Eighteenth-century Jamaica, Britain's largest and most valuable slave-owning colony, relied on a brutal system of slave management to maintain its tenuous social order. Trevor Burnard provides unparalleled insight into Jamaica's vibrant but harsh African and European cultures with a comprehensive examination of the extraordinary diary of plantation owner Thomas Thistlewood.

Thistlewood's diary, kept over the course of forty years, describes in graphic detail how white rule over slaves was predicated on the infliction of terror on the bodies and minds of slaves. Thistlewood treated his slaves cruelly even while he relied on them for his livelihood. Along with careful notes on sugar production, Thistlewood maintained detailed records of a sexual life that fully expressed the society's rampant sexual exploitation of slaves. In Burnard's hands, Thistlewood's diary reveals a great deal not only about the man and his slaves but also about the structure and enforcement of power, changing understandings of human rights and freedom, and connections among social class, race, and gender, as well as sex and sexuality, in the plantation system.

Based on the 37-volume diary of Thomas Thistlewood (1721-1786), an English immigrant slave keeper and plantation owner in Jamaica, Burnard analyzes the structure and enforcement of power, the understandings of human rights, and the connections among class, race, gender, and sexuality in the Atlantic world.

Trevor Burnard's Mastery, Tyranny, and Desire is a detailed study based on a rather unusual and exhaustive diary of an English migrant who becomes a small slaveholder in eighteenth-century Jamaica. It probably contains more information than any single source on Jamaican society and on slaves and slavery, and provides many important insights into the lives of slaves and of whites. Given the subject and the materials, this book will be of interest to all concerned with the study of slavery as well as scholars of the Caribbean and of British Caribbean history. (Stanley L. Engerman, University of Rochester )

A subtle, compelling, and beautifully written study of the racial, social, and gendered power systems that characterized eighteenth-century Jamaica. (Betty Wood, Cambridge University)

"Compelling. . . . Burnard skillfully explores Jamaican slave society at its zenith."

-- Caribbean Studies

"Manages to paint an utterly convincing mental and physical portrait of [Thistlewood's] life and times by careful anthropology, imaginative reading and, not least, really good writing."

-- History Today

A History Today Best History in 2008 Selection

"Morbidly fascinating and compelling. . . . Enable[s] us to understand more clearly the limited range of choices left for [people] of African descent to make under the tyranny of Thistlewood and his ilk."

-- Itinerario

"A careful study of the social, intellectual, and cultural worlds of a brutal slave owner. . . . A vivid and penetrating portrait of late eighteenth-century Jamaica."

-- American Historical Review

"A chilling and fascinating picture of the richest British colony in the New World. . . . Essential reading for anyone interested in early American history and culture."

-- Early American Literature "Manages to paint an utterly convincing mental and physical portrait of [Thistlewood's] life and times by careful anthropology, imaginative reading and, not least, really good writing."

-- History Today A History Today Best History in 2008 Selection "Morbidly fascinating and compelling. . . . Enable[s] us to understand more clearly the limited range of choices left for [people] of African descent to make under the tyranny of Thistlewood and his ilk."

-- Itinerario "A careful study of the social, intellectual, and cultural worlds of a brutal slave owner. . . . A vivid and penetrating portrait of late eighteenth-century Jamaica."

-- American Historical Review "Compelling. . . . Burnard skillfully explores Jamaican slave society at its zenith."

-- Caribbean Studies A subtle, compelling, and beautifully written study of the racial, social, and gendered power systems that characterized eighteenth-century Jamaica. (Betty Wood, Cambridge University) Based on the 37-volume diary of Thomas Thistlewood (1721-1786), an English immigrant slave keeper and plantation owner in Jamaica, Burnard analyzes the structure and enforcement of power, the understandings of human rights, and the connections among class, race, gender, and sexuality in the Atlantic world. Trevor Burnard's Mastery, Tyranny, and Desire is a detailed study based on a rather unusual and exhaustive diary of an English migrant who becomes a small slaveholder in eighteenth-century Jamaica. It probably contains more information than any single source on Jamaican society and on slaves and slavery, and provides many important insights into the lives of slaves and of whites. Given the subject and the materials, this book will be of interest to all concerned with the study of slavery as well as scholars of the Caribbean and of British Caribbean history. (Stanley L. Engerman, University of Rochester )