Author. He was an English planter in colonial Jamaica being a plantation overseer, owner, and slaveholder. Before leaving England, he was educated in Ackworth, West Yorkshire, where he received training in mathematics and "practical science." At age six, when his father died, he inherited 200 pounds from his father, though his older brother held the majority of the estate. The inheritance afforded him enough to leave England. He began training as a surveyor, but after a friend and fellow surveyor reportedly went mad and threw himself into the sea, Thistlewood reflected that his "hopes were dead." In February of 1750, he moved to Savanna la Mar, Jamaica, where he was employed as an overseer over a cattle pen which provided meat and vegetables. He then worked at Egypt, a sugar plantation, where he was an overseer from 1751 to 1767. This was when he started to acquire slaves, including Phibbah, who bore his only son in 1860, "Mulatto John," who was emancipated. His famous 14,000-page journal, known as "The Diary of Thomas Thistlewood," documents in detail the brutality exhibited by British slaveowners in Jamaica in the 18th century.
Author. He was an English planter in colonial Jamaica being a plantation overseer, owner, and slaveholder. Before leaving England, he was educated in Ackworth, West Yorkshire, where he received training in mathematics and "practical science." At age six, when his father died, he inherited 200 pounds from his father, though his older brother held the majority of the estate. The inheritance afforded him enough to leave England. He began training as a surveyor, but after a friend and fellow surveyor reportedly went mad and threw himself into the sea, Thistlewood reflected that his "hopes were dead." In February of 1750, he moved to Savanna la Mar, Jamaica, where he was employed as an overseer over a cattle pen which provided meat and vegetables. He then worked at Egypt, a sugar plantation, where he was an overseer from 1751 to 1767. This was when he started to acquire slaves, including Phibbah, who bore his only son in 1860, "Mulatto John," who was emancipated. His famous 14,000-page journal, known as "The Diary of Thomas Thistlewood," documents in detail the brutality exhibited by British slaveowners in Jamaica in the 18th century.
Bio by: Eddie Jones
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