In Miserable Slavery: Thomas Thistlewood in Jamaica 1750-1786

The story of Thomas Thistlewood (and the story told by him) is both fascinating and repellent. His diaries were written coolly and with little passion and show life on a slave plantation in all it's gory cruelty - from beatings, deliberate disfigurement, humiliation, sexual mistreatment, hurricanes, rebellion and near starvation. Vicious punishments were routine and common, death was just around the corner and misery, mistreatment and misfortune were the bread and butter of daily life. And yet misery is not the whole story. I was not too shocked by the depictions of cruelty - I already knew about the cruelty of slavery so to read about it came as no surprise - it was the other aspects of life that were unexpected and, a little confusing: Thistlewood was married to slave and clearly loved her (and she him), when times were hard he borrowed money from his slaves (some of whom appear to have had some means), he sold his old musket to one of his slaves (in defiance of the law) and, most shocking and surprising of all when he accuses a runaway slave of attempted murder the slave is found not guilty by the magistrate - something I would have found unimaginable. This book is a must for anyone with an interest in slavery in the Caribbean in the 18th century - but I urge you to grasp the deeper insights it gives into life at that time. My overwhelming feeling is that relationships and life itself at that time were not always as straightforward as we might think - with more layers and more complexity than we might first have imagined. Read it in tandem with Mastery, Tyranny and Desire.

Douglas Hall’s look at Thomas Thistlewood’s diary holds up incredibly well after more than three decades. Thistlewood was not a major planter by any means but his writings offer a fascinating, haunting, and chilling look at slavery in Jamaica in the second half of the 18th century. Hall was shrewd enough to let Thistlewood speak for himself--and indict and convict himself before history’s bench. This is not easy reading by any means as Thistlewood recorded his sexual conquests, including with women who could not say no, and the nightmarish punishments he inflicted on slaves. However, it is an important book, and readers wanting to understand more about Caribbean slavery should read this excellent book. Highest recommendation.

Neutral feelings about book. Info heartbreaking

Absolutely Fascinating!! A Must Read!

This book is about slavery in western Jamaica and it was very interesting for me. Having studied history in high school and college was very surprised that this book was never a part of the curriculum. It was hard to digest some of the horrible acts that were meted out to the slaves. A good read if one has a strong constitution.

Did not like how the events were put together

Martin Bashir said a stupid thing and paid the price. I thank me for making me aware of this book. It documents in a dispassionate way the cruelty of slavery. Thistlewood saw nothing wrong with his actions because at that time they were the norm. Bashir's point that slavery should not be trivialized by comparison to conditions today is well taken. Too bad he could not have made the point in a less explosive way.

Good read!

In Miserable Slavery: Thomas Thistlewood in Jamaica, 1750-86, is a true account of life on a Jamaicansugar plantation. The late Professor Douglas Hall of the University of The West Indies, throws lightonto the life of this notorious slave owner from Tupholme, Lincolnshire, using the almost 10,000 pagesof diaries that Thistlewood left behind on his death. Diaries that will condemn him forever.Professor Hall relates Thistlewood's arrival in Jamaica to seek his fortune, first employed as anestate overseer, rising to be a small landowner and owner of a sugar plantation. What makes thisbook so very different from most others, is the fact that most of the information comes straight fromThistlewood's own mouth, or perhaps more correctly, from his own pen, throwing light onto what formost people, is at best an acknowledgment that Britain was a slave trading nation, gleaned from ourdoctored history books in school.Here we have the stark and horrific detail of slave life, the brutality, the whippings and thesickening account in Thistlewood's own hand, of the punishments that he devised to subdue any spiritof rebellion in his slaves. A particularly evil punishment was the "Derby dose", where a slave wasmade to defecate in another slave's mouth.On page 72, we read in Thistlewood's own hand, " Gave him a moderate whipping, pickled him well,made Hector s*** in his mouth, immediately put in a gag whilst his mouth was full & made him wearit 4 or 5 hours."The 'pickling' would have made the pain of the whipping even more unbearable. Salt, lime juice andbird pepper being rubbed into the skin.Despite this totally depraved behaviour, Thomas Thistlewood was not so different from the many otherswho made a living from the sweat and blood of the enslaved. He was regarded as a gentleman planterby the Jamaican ruling elite of his day, all of whom were responsible for this holocaust of eviltowards Africans.The diaries of Thomas Thistlewood are held in the Archives of the Lincolnshire County Counciland are available to view on written request by writers and historians.This is a difficult but compelling book, one which I had to put down from time to time just togather my thoughts and take a breath of fresh air. Well worth reading, not for the faint hearted.Published in 1999320 pages with an Appendix and good index.

This is a powerful and compelling book - not for the faint hearted as it will have you in tears!!! The book transports you back to a time where slavery and its evil depravity was the sickening norm. What struck me was the fact that this is 1 slave owners account - and there were hundreds of slave owners in the Caribbean and I dread to think about how evil and sickeningly depraved they all were. Shocking stuff... but a must read for everyone so that you understand about black slavery at the hands of whites and how this evil and depraved trade put the "Great" into Great Britain!

Carefully read the introduction and the first few pages. Fast-forwarded through the next 100-150 pages. Astonished that other readers had highlighted the passages referring to sex and punishments. Decided to give up as so repetitive and boring.

This book gave little insight into Slavery. It is more a list of sexual encounters, and details of his garden.We are not told much about the slaves living conditions, what they did in spare time, the manner in which they were punished.

Hard hitting story many chapters made me bless I white & live in this decade A eye opener book horrendous what some people from the British empire did to others