The work space of the British planter class, 1770 – 1830

Summary

Focusing on Jamaica, the largest and most prosperous eighteenth-century British sugar colony, this paper will analyse the work space of wealthy Caribbean planters within a wider British-Atlantic context. The letters and probate inventory of Simon Taylor (1738-1813), one of the wealthiest sugar planters of his generation, will provide the main basis for the paper, which will analyse two aspects of the world of the planters and their perceptions of it. First, it will examine where plantation owners in Jamaica spent their time and how they went about managing their plantations. Second, it will examine how they understood the wider British world in which they lived and worked. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of Taylor’s probate inventory and letters can help to provide a nuanced and detailed understanding of the spatial and material aspects of the lives of planters in a pivotal era of transformation for the British empire and Caribbean slavery.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• British Caribbean Plantations (1750-1840): Cross Disciplinary Dialogues Among Historians and Historical Archaeologists   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2013

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 748