Jamaica Ladies: Female Slaveholders and the Creation of Britain’s Atlantic Empire

334 Pages·2020·2.659 MB·English

by  Christine Walker

Jamaica Ladies
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Jamaica Ladies

Female Slaveholders and the Creation of Britain’s Atlantic Empire
CHRISTINE WALKER
Published by the
OmOhundrO InstItute Of
early amerIcan hIstOry and culture,
Williamsburg, Virginia,
and the
unIversIty Of nOrth carOlIna Press,
Chapel Hill
The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture (OI)
is sponsored by William & and Mary. On November 15, 1996, the OI adopted the present name
in honor of a bequest from Malvern H. Omohundro, Jr., and Elizabeth Omohundro
© 2020 The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Cover illustration: A Mulatto Woman with Her White Daughter Visited by Negro Women
in Their House in Martinique. Le Masurier (b. 1710). 1775 (oil on canvas),
Ministere d l’Outre Mer, Paris, France. Bridgeman Images
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Walker, Christine (Christine Millen), author. | Omohundro Institute of
Early American History & Culture, publisher.
Title: Jamaica ladies : female slaveholders and the creation of
Britain’s Atlantic empire / Christine Walker.
Description: Williamsburg, Virginia : Omohundro Institute of Early American History and
Culture ; Chapel Hill : Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the
University of North Carolina Press, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2019053442 | IsBn 9781469655260 (cloth : alk. paper) |
IsBn 9781469658797 (paperback : alk. paper) | IsBn 9781469655277 (ebook)
Subjects: lcsh: Women colonists—Jamaica—History—18th century. | Women
colonists—Jamaica—History—17th century. | Slaveholders—Jamaica—History. |
Women, Black—Jamaica—History. | Women—Jamaica—Social conditions—
History. | Great Britain—Colonies—America—Economic conditions.
Classification: lcc hQ1517 .W35 2020 | ddc 305.40941—dc23
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019053442
The University of North Carolina Press has been a
member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003.
For Will & Finn
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Acknowledgments
This book is, not the work of a solitary writer, but rather the fruition of years
of mentorship, intellectual generosity, emotional and financial sustenance,
and painstaking labor done by various people living in different parts of the
world. A number of organizations opened their purse strings, offering gener-
ous funding that made it possible for me to transform the rough sketch of an
idea into a legitimate research project. The University of Michigan assisted
my initial forays to archives in Jamaica and Britain with a Rackham Graduate
Student Research Grant, a Peter and Barbara Benedek Graduate Fellowship,
and a Rackham Humanities Candidacy Fellowship. A Fulbright Research
Grant enabled me to spend a substantial amount of time in the Jamaican
archives and give this work the evidentiary depth that it required. A short-
term grant from the Huntington Library further enhanced the scope of my
research. The largess of the Mellon / ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellow-
ship afforded me the luxury of a full year to write my dissertation findings,
while a Bernard and Irene Schwartz Postdoctoral Fellowship at the New-
York Historical Society gave me a year to transform the dissertation into a
book manuscript. Finally, the generous maternity and medical leave provided
by Yale-N US College made it possible for me to complete this work while
also bringing two children into the world.
The Atlantic scope of this project necessitated research at numerous ar-
chives in three different countries, and I am deeply appreciative of the archi-
vists who gave me their patient and skillful assistance during my research
journey. Staff at the Island Record Office, the National Library of Jamaica,
and the Jamaica Archives allowed me to spend months at their institutions
sifting through thousands of rare manuscripts. Employees at the National Ar-
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Acknowledgments
chives of Scotland and England and the British Library quickly retrieved a
trove of material for me, while the archivists at smaller record offices, includ-
ing the East Sussex Record Office and the Bristol Record Office, shared cru-
cial knowledge of the holdings at their institutions with me. Altogether, the
expertise and the efforts of a cadre of unnamed staff yielded the rich manu-
script collections that form the basis of this book.
Jamaica Ladies developed from the kernel of an idea that was nurtured
and enhanced by the exceptional guidance that I received at the dissertation
stage from my advisors. David Hancock continually challenged me to re-
examine my ideas from new angles and spent hours line editing a rough dis-
sertation into a feasible project. I still employ the lessons he taught me about
the necessity of explaining, both in writing and in speech, why my work
matters to a wide range of audiences. Susan Juster guided the project from
its inception to its completion, imparting sharp insights about contradictory
or unconvincing elements in the dissertation and inciting me to improve it.
Mary Kelley and Dena Goodman invested their tenacious intellects, not only
in the dissertation, but in my development as a scholar. Years later, I remain
both grateful for and inspired by this remarkable group of faculty members.
Other scholars have made important contributions to this work along the
way. The faculty at the University of the West Indies, Mona, including Sir
Roy Augier, Johnathan Dalby, David Gosse, and Kathleen Monteith, sup-
plied valuable insights that shaped my plans at a key moment in my research
in Jamaica. James Robertson liberally shared his unparalleled knowledge of
Jamaican archives and sources. Anthony Bogues has been a steadfast sup-
porter of this project, inviting me to present my research to faculty and
graduate students at the Center for the Study of Slavery and Social Justice at
Brown University twice. The critical feedback that I received as a participant
in the inaugural Lapidus Scholars’ Workshop at the Omohundro Institute
of Early American History and Culture from Josh Piker, Brett Rushforth,
Fredrika Teute, Karin Wulf, and Nadine Zimmerli convinced me that the
Institute was the place that I wanted to publish my book.
Many scholars of early America, the Caribbean, the Atlantic world, the
British Empire, and women’s and gender studies have further enriched my
work. I met Trevor Burnard when I was just beginning my dissertation re-
search in Britain; he continues to be one of the most enthusiastic supporters of
my work, generously sharing his time and his vast knowledge of Jamaica and
the Atlantic world with me. Nina Dayton and Thomas Foster have both made
considerable contributions to this project. I am also grateful for the feed-
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Acknowledgments
back that I have received from Sarah Barringer, Rick Bell, Kathleen Brown,
Kit Candlin, Amy Erickson, Amy Froide, Marisa Fuentes, Alison Games,
Sheryllynne Haggerty, Catherine Hall, Dirk Hartog, Michelle McDonald,
Roderick McDonald, Diana Paton, Christer Petley, David Ryden, and Nuala
Zahedieh.
I am greatly indebted to the team at the Omohundro Institute who have
supported this project. Together, their unmatched skills have turned an un-
gainly dissertation into a polished book. The manuscript’s two readers, Ellen
Hartigan- O’Connor and Simon Newman, delivered scrupulous and shrewd
advice that incited me to make substantial enhancements to its structure and
argument. My editor Nadine Zimmerli shepherded the project from the pro-
posal to the copyediting stage, conferring her judicious expertise every step
of the way. Her support, which has often involved phone calls made from dif-
ferent time zones, has been unwavering, while her ability to develop and clar-
ify arguments and to creatively rearrange chapters is unmatched. Catherine
Kelly ensured the smooth and timely completion of the work. I marvel at
Kaylan Stevenson’s capacity for reshaping ungainly and repetitive text into
sparkling prose and am grateful for the assistance of the Institute’s appren-
tices, whose painstaking efforts have ensured the credibility of every line in
this book.
A global network of friends and colleagues at various institutions and
locations throughout the world have both sustained me and contributed to
this project at various points. In graduate school, Emma Amador, Benjamin
Cronin, Kara French, Aston Gonzalez, Suzi Linsley, Daniel Livesay, Elspeth
Martini, Jennifer Palmer, and Edgardo Pérez- Morales established a stimulat-
ing and encouraging cohort. During my tenure at Texas Tech University, my
colleagues in the history department, Alan Barenberg, Jacob Baum, Justin
Hart, Karlos Hill, Matthew Johnson, Erin-M arie Legacey, Miguel Levario,
Emily Skidmore, and Abigail Swingen, welcomed me into their congenial
and intellectually vibrant community. Aaron Jakes, T. Cole Jones, Matthew
Karp, and Brandon O’Malley provided a year of comradery at the New-Y ork
Historical Society and the New School, while Zara Anishanslin, Celine Ca-
rayon, Glenda Goodman, Rana Hogarth, and Whitney Martinko shared
hours of laughter and hours of insightful commentary at the Omohundro
Institute’s Lapidus Scholars’ Workshop. Yale- NUS College’s richly inter-
disciplinary community, including Nienke Boer, Kevin Goldstein, Jessica
Hanser, Gabriele Koch, and Rohan Mukherjee, has prompted me to expand
my scholarly boundaries beyond the Atlantic world and beyond history.
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