Thomas Thistlewood (1721–1786) was an English-born planter, slave owner, and prolific diarist whose life in colonial Jamaica provides one of the most detailed—and disturbing—windows into the brutal realities of 18th-century British slavery in the Caribbean. Born into modest circumstances as the second son of a tenant farmer in Tupholme, Lincolnshire, England, Thistlewood received an education in mathematics and practical sciences at Ackworth, Yorkshire. After limited success in farming and a two-year stint as a supercargo on an East India Company ship, he emigrated to Jamaica in 1750 at age 29, seeking economic opportunities in the booming sugar colony.
Life and Career in Jamaica
Upon arrival, Thistlewood worked as an overseer on cattle pens and sugar plantations in western Jamaica, starting in St. Elizabeth parish under employers like John Cope. His roles involved managing enslaved laborers, enforcing discipline, and optimizing productivity amid the harsh tropical environment. By 1767, he had acquired his own property, Egypt plantation (a “pen” or small farm) in Westmoreland parish, where he owned over 100 enslaved people at various points. He never married but formed a long-term relationship with Phibbah, an enslaved woman he purchased and eventually freed in his will, referring to her as his “wife.” They had a son, Mulatto John (born 1760, died 1780), whom Thistlewood manumitted and apprenticed as a carpenter, though he once flogged the boy severely for refusing work. Thistlewood died on November 30, 1786, at age 65, leaving behind a modest estate.
Thistlewood’s journals also chronicle broader events, including Tacky’s Revolt (1760), a major slave uprising that heightened white colonists’ paranoia about being outnumbered by enslaved Africans. He documented interactions with Maroons (descendants of escaped slaves living in Jamaica’s mountains) and noted slave resistance, runaways, and rumors of insurrections, revealing the constant tension in the colony.
Thomas Thistlewood’s diaries, comprising over 14,000 pages and two million words from 1748 to 1786, provide a chilling, firsthand account of the systemic brutality he inflicted on enslaved people in Jamaica. As an overseer and later owner of the Egypt plantation, Thistlewood recorded his actions with detached precision, treating violence as routine management. These entries reveal thousands of instances of physical torture, sexual assault, and dehumanizing exploitation. While it’s impossible to list every single act from such voluminous records, below is a comprehensive expansion based on key categories, with prominent examples drawn from his journals. Historians like Douglas Hall and Trevor Burnard have analyzed these in works such as In Miserable Slavery (1989) and Mastery, Tyranny, and Desire (2004), highlighting how Thistlewood’s behavior exemplified the broader horrors of Caribbean slavery.
1. Physical Punishments and Torture
Thistlewood employed extreme corporal punishments for perceived infractions like theft, escape attempts, laziness, or minor disobedience. These were often public to instill fear, and he invented or adapted tortures to maximize suffering. Floggings occurred almost daily, with enslaved people whipped using cat-o’-nine-tails or similar tools, sometimes up to hundreds of lashes. He documented high rates of injury, illness, and death resulting from these acts, yet showed no remorse.
Flogging and “Pickling”: After whipping, wounds were rubbed with a mixture of salt pickle, lime juice, and bird peppers to intensify pain and prevent healing. Examples:
- In 1756, runaway slaves Punch and Quacoo were “well flogged, and then washed and rubbed in salt pickle, lime juice & bird pepper.”
- Coobah, a frequent runaway, was flogged in 1771 and “put a chain about her neck”; in another instance, she was “flogged… well & brand marked her in the forehead.”
- Solon was flogged multiple times (e.g., 1770–1774) for failing to catch fish, once with a “collar and chain put about his neck.”
- In 1772, 1774, 1775, 1776, and 1778, various slaves like Hazat, Port Royal, and others faced similar treatments after escapes or thefts.
- Frequency: Hundreds of documented floggings across decades, often for eating plantation produce during famines.
“Derby’s Dose” (A Torture Invented by Thistlewood): This involved flogging, pickling wounds, and forcing another enslaved person to defecate or urinate into the victim’s mouth, sometimes with gagging to prolong the ordeal. It was used primarily in 1756 for theft or escapes.
- January 28, 1756: Derby was “well whipped, and made Egypt shit in his mouth” for eating sugar cane.
- May 26, 1756: Derby again was “well flogged and pickled, then made Hector shit in his mouth” for the same offense.
- July 24, 1756: Port Royal, after recapture, received “a moderate whipping, pickled him well, made Hector shit in his mouth, immediately put a gag whilst his mouth was full & made him wear it 4 or 5 hours.”
- July 25 and 31, 1756: Phillis endured the same, though spared the gag once.
- July 30, 1756: Hector was whipped for losing a hoe, then “made New Negro Joe piss in his eyes & mouth.”
- Frequency: At least six instances in 1756; none recorded afterward, possibly due to its extremity or shifting practices.
Branding and Mutilation: Thistlewood branded all enslaved people with his initials “TT” on their shoulders as a mark of ownership. Additional mutilations included facial branding or chopping.
- By 1762, his 12 slaves were branded; by 1767, all 28 on his plantation.
- Bess’s seven-year-old son, Bristol, was branded.
- Mary was recaptured, flogged, branded on her left cheek, and fitted with a “steel collar with a few links of chain to it.”
- In 1755–1756, Scotland was shot and “chopped to death” for stealing corn and plantains.
- Frequency: Universal for owned slaves, with specific child and facial branding noted.
Confinement, Exposure, and Other Degradations: Slaves were locked in stocks, bilboes (iron bars), or chains; exposed to insects; or forced into humiliating acts.
- 1756: Hazat was “put in the bilboes both feet; gagged him; locked his hands together; rubbed him with molasses & exposed him naked to the flies all day, and to the mosquitoes all night, without fire.”
- 1770: After Coobah defecated in a punch strainer as revenge, Thistlewood had it “rubbed all over [her] face and mouth.”
- During the 1780s, slaves were flogged for eating produce amid malnutrition, while Thistlewood hosted lavish meals for white guests.
- He once severely flogged his own mixed-race son, Mulatto John (born 1760), for refusing work.
- Frequency: Routine, with chains and exposure used in dozens of escape cases; starvation-linked punishments peaked in famine periods.
2. Sexual Violence and Exploitation
Thistlewood was a prolific serial rapist, documenting 3,852 acts of sexual assault against 138 enslaved women (and occasionally men) over 37 years. He viewed these as entitlements of his position, often occurring in plantation areas like the morass, plantain walk, curing-house, or boiling-house. Many victims were assaulted repeatedly, and he sometimes raped multiple women in one night, afterward paying small coins “for their troubles.” His records frame these as clinical transactions, ignoring consent in a system where enslaved people had none. This “libidinal economy” is intertwined with his management, using rape as control and reward.
Early and Routine Assaults: Starting days after arriving in Egypt in 1751, he assaulted possibly underage Ellin, then Dido, Jenny, Susannah, Big Mimber, and Belinda.
Frequent Victims and Patterns:
- Phoebe: Raped multiple times.
- Egypt Susannah and Mountain Susannah: Repeated assaults.
- Ellen, Violet, Mazarine, Warsoe, Little Mimber, Abba, Mirtilla, Frankie, Sabina, Aurelia, Fanny, Sally, and Mulatto Bessie: Each was assaulted dozens to hundreds of times; Sally’s case exemplifies relentless abuse.
- Phibbah: His long-term enslaved “wife,” assaulted regularly despite their relationship; she was eventually freed in his will.
- Frequency: Averaged about 100 acts per year, peaking in his early years; included assaults on women during pregnancies or illnesses.
Assaults on Men: Rare but noted, including coercive acts tied to punishments.
3. Broader Exploitation and Indirect Atrocities
Beyond direct violence, Thistlewood’s regime caused widespread suffering through neglect and economic cruelty.
- Starvation and Overwork: High death rates from malnutrition, disease, and exhaustion; slaves died at rates requiring constant replacements via the slave trade. In the 1780s, floggings for hunger-driven theft occurred while Thistlewood feasted.
- Child Exploitation: Branded and punished children; his son was flogged and apprenticed under duress.
- Psychological Terror: Public spectacles of torture fostered constant fear, suppressing resistance amid events like Tacky’s Revolt (1760).
- Overall Impact: His actions contributed to Jamaica’s deadly slave system, where mortality exceeded births, and violence was normalized as “discipline.”
These atrocities, while extreme, were not anomalous in colonial Jamaica but amplified by Thistlewood’s meticulous documentation, offering historians a raw view of slavery’s dehumanization.