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Trevor Burnard

Trevor G. Burnard

Mastery, Tyranny, and Desire: Thomas Thistlewood and His Slaves in the Anglo-Jamaican World Hardcover – May 24, 2004

by Trevor Burnard (Author)

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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.

Print length

336 pages
Language

English
Publisher

The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date

May 24, 2004
Dimensions

6.13 x 0.84 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

0807855251
ISBN-13

978-0807855256
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Editorial Reviews

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

A brilliant and devastating work, and invaluable in developing my understanding of the brutal history of slavery in the Caribbean."—Zadie Smith, New York Review of Books

Review

A finely crafted microhistory of Thistlewood's life and world, brimming over with fascinating detail. . . . Succeeds admirably. . . . A finely executed treatment of a fascinating and significant subject.--H-Atalnatic

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ The University of North Carolina Press; New edition (May 24, 2004)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0807855251
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0807855256
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.14 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.13 x 0.84 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #115,129 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #5 in Jamaica Caribbean & West Indies History
- #228 in Bird Field Guides
- #607 in Discrimination & Racism

Customer Reviews:
73 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

73 global ratings

5 star		62%
4 star		17%
3 star		11%
2 star		5%
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The Evils of Slavery in 18th Century Jamaica

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 15, 2021

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Trevor Bernard’s take on the diaries of Thomas Thistlewood will prove divisive (as a quick glance at the reviews here show). Bernard wrote to understand Thistleswood, a planter and slaveholder in 18th century Jamaica. With limited primary sources, Bernard did the best he could at trying to read between the lines but it’s a tough job, especially when it comes to the enslaved people he held. Despite some of the other reviews insisting Bernard painted Thistlewood in admirable terms, he actually called him a sociopath and did not flinch from the tortures he devised and the cruelty he inflicted. Still, Bernard could have indicted Thistlewood more by offering longer accounts from his diaries though, with more than 35 years of material, that would have been no easy task. This is painful reading--but often insightful. Recommended.

One person found this helpful

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Roy L White

Flawed but essential reading

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 20, 2013

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I vacillated between giving this book 3 stars or 4 stars, but finally decided that despite the flaws, the events described in Thistlewood's diary need to be as widely read as possible; so I gave it 4 stars.
I think the principle flaws are the author's (Burnard) sometimes uncritical acceptance of Thistlewood's diary entries. Clearly, relations between people, social customs, and life has changed considerably since the 18th century and the author acknowledges that early in the narrative. Despite this disclaimer I am still taken aback by the lack of skepticism or critical analysis from the author concerning a fair number of Thistlewood's diary entries that simply do not pass the "smell test". In fact, some entries seem to be written rationalizations for what even Thistlewood recognized as amoral, brutish behavior. Some of this non-criticality is evident in the narrative about Thistlewood's relations with his slaves. The author accepts Thistlewood's account of slave motivations and behavior without any disclaimers that the motivations and behavior Thistlewood described may not have been objective and were written to satisfy Thistlewood's preconceived notions.
Finally, I think that this book needs to be read along with other works such as "Saltwater Slavery...." by Stephanie Smallwood and "The Bondwoman's Narrative" by Hannah Crafts for a more complete picture of slavery. The Crafts work, while fictional, provides a written historical view of slavery written by an (escaped) slave prior to 1861.

7 people found this helpful

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Charles Wayne Batson

Great insight to the past.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 31, 2013

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Martin Bashir said a stupid thing and paid the price. I thank him 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.

6 people found this helpful

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cheeky

Boring. Did not depict the true evils of this man

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 20, 2020

Verified Purchase

Disappointed
I thought this book would have more of the horrors that was done by this man to the slaves. He is know as being the wickedest slave owner in the west. Basically it was just a boring story of how this man was just a regular slave owner in jamaica all innocent and just doing a job. I thought it would have been his diary excerpts.

I did not like the storyline I did not truly capture who this man was . i read novels more entertaining.

2 people found this helpful

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D. Njoku

An enlightening experience

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 30, 2008

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May the world be ever thankful for those who, like the author of this book, can dedicate their effort to enlightening us with such brilliant insight into a relatively small, but not insignificant, part of our past.
This is an experience, not quite removed from that revealed in "King Leopold's Ghost", from which those of us with a sense of responsibility can all benefit, and be encouraged to strive to make this world a better habitat for all of us who happen to share it.

9 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

A brilliant example of an intellectually lazy "academic" work.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 17, 2020

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The rule of completeness in law exists to prevent parties from taking snippets out of context to create a misleading impression. Perhaps Mr. Burnard ought to acquaint himself with the concept. I have read much of Thistlewood's diaries and I am flabbergasted by Mr. Burnard's omissions.

For example, he mentions Congo Sam's attempt to murder Thistlewood; however, Mr. Burnard fails to mention that when Thistlewood asks London (the slave who assisted him against Congo Sam's attack) to testify at trial, London refused: Friday, 5th January, 1753, "At night London refuses to go with me to Sam’s trial! told me he would not go --"

What an amazing entry! And an even more amazing lack of intellectual curiosity by Mr. Burnard. So many questions -- Why would London’s testimony have been required when the accuser was white and the accused was a slave? How could London, who was himself a slave, refuse this request from his overseer? Could Thistlewood not compel him to go? Was this type of refusal an extraordinary occurrence or did slaves retain more latitude than we have commonly assumed? These questions beg for investigation especially in light of the fact that Congo Sam was acquitted. But not a peep from the estimable Mr. Burnard.

Even worse, if it is possible, Mr. Burnard has the unmitigated gall to tell us what Phibbah thought, felt, and what her motivations were -- based on sheer conjecture, for none of that is to be found in the diaries. Thistlewood rarely ever wrote down his own inner thoughts, let alone anyone else's. It's actually kind of funny when you think of it. When have men EVER been able to understand women? It took my husband 15 years to figure out that "Fine" doesn't really mean everything's fine. Quite the opposite. LOL!

For me, the saddest part of this book was Mr. Burnard's dismissiveness of the actions of the slaves themselves. Individual acts of resistance are called failures because single actors did not dismantle the entire system of slavery. Tell that to Mr. Wilberforce. Mr. Burnard reduces the industry and entrepreneurship of the slaves to the largesse of Thistlewood. He seems unable, or unwilling, to contemplate that even in "miserable slavery" these people had agency and used it to negotiate and engage in the socio-economic structures of 18th Century Jamaica.

I would give it negative stars if I could. Save your money. Download the original diaries from Yale -- Beinecke Library. They are tough to read, but they are free and come from the horse's mouth instead of from this horse's ... you get the picture.

Respectfully submitted,

19 people found this helpful

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