Thomas Thistlewood
Thomas Thistlewood (16 March 1721 – 30 November 1786) was an English-born slave-owner, serial rapist, planter and diarist who spent the majority of his life in the British colony of Jamaica.
Eventually spanning over 14,000 pages, the diary detailed the brutal mistreatment of the slaves he held authority over, first as an overseer then as a plantation owner.
He systematically raped enslaved girls and women; those that ran away were whipped and put in chains, collars, or placed in field gangs.
In 1767, Thistlewood purchased a 160-acre plantation called "Breadnut Island Pen"; by 1779, he had 32 enslaved people rearing livestock and growing provisions.
At Breadnut Island Pen, Thistlewood made attempts to "match" his male and female slaves; despite this he continued to rape the women.
Thistlewood's treatment of his enslaved workers did not attract criticism from Jamaica's slavocracy, as this was typical of the conditions faced by Jamaican slaves.
After a two-year voyage on one of the East India Company's ships as a supercargo, Thistlewood returned to England briefly at 29 and decided to seek employment in Jamaica.
[7] Many enslaved people fled Egypt, but like other plantation owners and overseers, Thistlewood often hired Jamaican Maroons to hunt runaway slaves.
[11] During Tacky's War in 1760, and subsequent slave revolts that decade, Thistlewood wrote about the fear planters felt about the uprising's possible success.
97–99 In the years that followed, Thistlewood wrote about attempts to put down smaller, spin-off rebellions, especially the ones in western Jamaica, led by Apongo, a slave belonging to Cope.
"[13] Thistlewood wrote about John Jones's house being burnt by rebel slaves, who initially defeated a contingent of white militias, killing a number of soldiers.
When Mary was recaptured after running away, Thistlewood had her flogged, branded on her left cheek, and "put her on a steel collar with a few links of chain to it".
He acquired several hundred books, often on scientific and technical subjects; collected and described medicinal plants and other botanical specimens; and kept a detailed weather record for 34 years.
While his slaves complained of hunger and starvation, Thistlewood entertained guests such as William Beckford, dining out on lavish meals, including crabs, mudfish, shrimps, mutton, turnips, broccoli, duck, watermelons, and a variety of alcohol.
Thistlewood was only of average wealth in white Jamaican society, especially in comparison to wealthy planters such as Simon Taylor, but at the time of his death he was still far wealthier than most British men in other parts of the Empire.
He could have continued to make more money working for others, but in the mid-1760s he decided to become an independent landowner, not as a rich sugar producer but as a modestly well-to-do market gardener and horticultural expert for Jamaica's western end.
In 1756, Hazat was recaptured after running away, and Thistlewood "put him 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."
He wrote that when two slaves named Punch and Quacoo were caught for running away, they were well flogged, "and then washed and rubbed in salt pickle, lime juice & bird pepper."
On 30 July, a slave named Hector was whipped for losing his hoe, and Thistlewood "made New Negro Joe piss in his eyes & mouth.
Enslaved women who ran away were whipped and put in collars, yokes or placed in field gangs, and raped by Thistlewood, who documented his activities in his journal.
In 1769, Phibba took ill, and Thistlewood resorted to a number of remedies, including a dose of salts, purging powders, and mercury pills.
Similarly, that same year, Damsel was bitten by a dog, but dreaded the European medical practices, and tried to hide the injury from Thistlewood, who, when he discovered it, "flogged her well & put her in the bilboes".
He also had a sexual relationship with Bett Mitchell, whose parents rejected his proposal of marriage, and an affair with a married woman, Elizabeth Toyne.
[42] Within days of becoming overseer of Egypt, Thistlewood began raping the enslaved women, starting with a possibly underage girl, Ellin.
Joseph Horlock used the traditional European cures of the 18th century, by having Thistlewood "blooded" and giving him 24 mercury pills and a bottle of balsam drops.
He had a tempestuous "relationship" with Jenny until late 1753, during which he bought her several gifts, but that did not stop him from raping Susannah, Big Mimber, Belinda, and Dido in places like the morass, on the plantain walk, and in the curing-house and boiling-house.
[44] At Breadnut Pen, Thistlewood made attempts to "match" his male slaves with female partners, with varying degrees of success.
When the American Revolutionary War broke out, John joined the "Brown Infantry", a British military regiment consisting of multiracial Jamaicans, to prepare for a French invasion that never came.
[57] Thistlewood seems to have enjoyed his powerful position over black female slaves, and showed very little interest in Mary Holmes when he finally met another woman who came from Lincolnshire.
[60] Burnard also suggests that Jamaica was very different from the colony of Virginia where the political offices such as vestrymen and justices of the peace tended to be dominated by wealthier planters.
