Theater of terror : Domestic violence in thomas thistlewood’s jamaica, 1750-1786

Burnard, Trevor

Abstract

© 1999 by Routledge. One and a half months after arriving in Jamaica, John Thistlewood, a young Englishman residing with his uncle, Thomas, an overseer on a Westmoreland sugar plantation, had a nasty shock. On April 15,1764, John " Hard a great Noise�? and went to investigate “what the matter was.�? He found “sum Negroes�? who “had been Robbin ours of fish.�? They fled and John chased; but when he caught up with them, one refused to respect the authority of a new white man and “drew a long Clasp Nife and swore that he would stab me.�? John “was a little fri[gh]tted and thought myself in a great deal of danger,�? as he was alone and faced nearly thirty hostile slaves. John saved himself by declaring that " if any of them ofered to stir I would take out my Pistols and blow his Braines out.�? The bluff worked well enough that “the Fellow that had the Nife in his hand Run immediately into the Bush.�? Having established that he was master of the situation, John proceeded to demonstrate it in the usual white Jamaican fashion, taking six slaves and giving each “a good whipin.�?2.

Citation

Burnard, T. (1999). Theater of terror : Domestic violence in thomas thistlewood’s jamaica, 1750-1786. In C. Daniels, & M. V. Kennedy (Eds.), Over the threshold : intimate violence in early America (237-253). New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203949054

• Online Publication Date: Apr 8, 2014
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 1999
• Deposit Date: Apr 1, 2022
• Publisher: Routledge
• Pages: 237-253
• Book Title: Over the threshold : intimate violence in early America
• Chapter Number: 13
• ISBN: 9781135250164; 9780415918046
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203949054
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/3579654