Green Park Estate, Jamaica
Green Park Estate was one of the largest and oldest sugar plantations in Trelawny parish, dating back to 1655, with the Invasion of Jamaica by the English, when Oliver Cromwell first granted land to James Bradshaw, the son of John Bradshaw, one of the regicides who signed the death warrant of King Charles I. Adjoining lands were granted to the Barrett family by King Charles II in 1660.
Suitable defenses were a requirement mandated by the British colonial authorities, in event of a Spanish attack, or a slave revolt.
[1] Atherton would spend a great deal of time in England as an absentee landlord, however visited his Green Park frequently.
The third gang consisted of young children and elderly enslaved men and women who would typically take jobs that required lower physical strength.
Some would have treated those enslaved in a more humane manner, and some would have committed great sin, be it of their own accord, or simply following orders of the plantation owner.
There were also many enslaved people, often women, who were required to take on domestic roles in the Great House, working in the kitchens, as maidservants, or as washerwomen.
[11] Such vast fortune allowed him to eventually retire in comfort to his large country estate, Prescot Hall in St. Helens in 1787, after residing in the United States for just under a period of 5 years.
[12] Atherton's elder brother, Richard, a Preston woolen draper and banker had also invested heavily into Green Park.
[13][14] His sons, John and Edward were the initial beneficiaries of Green Park Estate and nearby Spring Vale Pen.
[17] In 1816, Green Park Estate and nearby Spring Vale Pen under Atherton ownership had recorded a total of 795 chattel slaves.
[23] An estate journal taken between the 6 – 10 January 1823, outlines a number of young children and infants within Green Park's enslaved population.
It is unknown as to whether she sought to better the living and working conditions on these plantations for the 800 slaves she now jointly owned with her sister Lucy Willis.
[25] While Atherton, a spinster, was habitually seen traveling in a sedan chair around Manchester, the people upon whom her wealthy lifestyle depended were engaged in a wide range of forced labour at Green Park.
Although suppressed, the scale of the uprising and fear of further rebellions had a major impact on public and political opinion in the United Kingdom, and resoundingly hastened the case for abolition in less than a decade.
Green Park Great House was purchased by Ray Fremmer, an American WW2 veteran, an eccentric amateur historian[27] and archaeologist originally from Boston, who moved to Jamaica before 1960.
He single-handedly attempted to restore the manor, known as the "Great House" and the stone windmill on a limited budget, with a view of making it a slave heritage museum.
