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Mastery, Tyranny, and Desire: Thomas Thistlewood and His Slaves in the Anglo-Jamaican World New Edition
Author(s): Trevor Burnard (Author)
- Publisher: University North Carolina Pr
- Publication Date: 24 May 2004
- Edition: New
- Language: English
- Print length: 336 pages
- ISBN-10: 0807855251
- ISBN-13: 9780807855256
Book Description
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.
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“As intimate a picture of African slavery in British America as we are ever likely to get. . . . An important moment in our efforts to understand the character of slavery in the British colonial world. . . . A remarkably rich and full picture of white-slave relations.”–Zadie Smith,
New York Review of Books“Compelling. . . . Burnard skillfully explores Jamaican slave society at its zenith.”–
Caribbean Studies“Lest scholars grow too complacent about what slavery entailed,
Mastery, Tyranny, and Desire remains a remorseless reminder of the savagery needed to maintain the unholy alliance of slavery and empire.”–William and Mary Quarterly“Offers fresh insights into the character of the plantocracy and its evolution. . . . Burnard’s extraordinarily thoughtful rendering of Thomas Thistlewood suggest[s] how much more is to be learned about those who ruled the universe in the age of the plantation.”–
The Nation
