NWIG (Dec 2008)
Two Attorneys and an Overseer
Abstract
[First paragraph] Plantation Jamaica 1750-1850: Capital and Control in a Colonial Economy. B.W. Higmgman. Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 2005. xiv + 386 pp. (Cloth US$ 65.00) Mastery, Tyranny, and Desire: Thomas Thistlewood and His Slaves in the Anglo-Jamaican World. Trerevoror Bururnard. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. xii +320 pp. (Cloth US$ 45.00, Paper US$ 21.95) These two works from differing perspectives add significant new layers to our knowledge of plantation management in the Caribbean. Both focus on Jamaica, Higman straddling the pre- and postemancipation period (1750-1850) and dealing with the attorneys (i.e. agents, managers) who administered estates for absentee proprietors, and Burnard depicting in unique detail the life of an overseer, right-hand man for attorneys and resident planters alike, and his rise to landed proprietorship. The books usefully complement one another.
