Research Catalog

Title

Jamaica in 1850, or, The effects of sixteen years of freedom on a slave colony / John Bigelow ; introduction by Robert J. Scholnick.

Author

Bigelow, John, 1817-1911

Publication

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 2006.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Scholnick, Robert J.

Description

lxi, 214 p.; 21 cm.

Summary

• "After Jamaican slaves were fully emancipated in 1838, the local economy collapsed. Driven by a belief in the innate inferiority of the black race and bolstered by this apparently disastrous Jamaican example, Americans who defended slavery convinced many that emancipation at home would lead to economic and social chaos. Collecting John Bigelow's vivid firsthand reporting, Jamaica in 1850 challenges that widely held view and demonstrates that Jamaica's troubles were caused not by lazy blacks but by the incompetence of absentee white planters operating within an obsolete colonial system. Bigelow also shows that although large plantations languished, many former slaves worked tirelessly and became successful smallscale landowners."
• "The power of these arguments made John Bigelow's Jamaica in 1850 a crucially important document in the American antislavery struggle both in America and Britain. Robert J. Scholnick's introduction places the book within transnational debates about Emancipation, slavery, colonialism, and economic development in the antebellum period and considers its powerful impact in furthering the antislavery cause. Book jacket."--Jacket.

Alternative Title

• Effects of sixteen years of freedom on a slave colony
• Jamaica in 1850

Subject

• 1800-1899
• Bigelow, John, 1817-1911 > Travel > Jamaica
• Black people > Jamaica > History > 19th century
• Jamaica > Description and travel
• Jamaica > Economic conditions

Genre/Form

History

Note

• Originally published: New York & London : Putnam, 1851.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction / Robert J. Scholnick -- Departure from New York -- How to escape sea-sickness -- Our passengers -- Taylor, cousin of Zachary Taylor -- The Pass of Mayaguana -- Arrival at Port Royal -- Commodore Brooks -- Kingston seen from the Bay -- Kingston Hotels -- Streets -- Inhabitants -- Old people and babies -- Coolies -- Intermarriage between the whites and browns -- Public sentiment about color -- The proportion of colored and white people in public and professional employments -- Colored people of note -- The English policy towards them -- Spanishtown -- Governor Grey -- His embarrassments -- His family -- House of Assembly -- The Public Printers -- The Speaker -- His compensation.

ISBN

• 0252073274 (pbk. : alk. paper)
• 9780252073274

LCCN

^^2006003722

OCLC

63472894

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library