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Three months in Jamaica, in 1832: Comprising a residence of seven weeks on a sugar plantation

'Trois mois à la Jamaïque, par M. H. Whiteley' (in Victor Schoelcher, Colonies étrangères et Haïti, Paris: Pagnerre, 1843), 278-96. French.

Anti-Slavery International, 'Recovered Histories' collection. Friends House Library, London. Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature, University of London. British Library. Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

Jamaica Sugar Plantation Residence Travel Slavery Abolition British Caribbean

Published by the abolitionist publisher J. Hatchard, this is an eye-witness account of plantation slavery in Jamaica. Whiteley, who came to the West Indies for work believing that the claims of cruelty were exaggerated and that slaves in the West Indies were no worse off than factory children in Britain, is shocked by the physical punishment of the slaves, logging the beatings he witnesses in his journal. He describes a violent and tense society, suspicious of outside interference, and violently opposed to missionary activity among the slaves. Letters testifying to Whiteley's character are attached as an appendix.

This short travel narrative circulated widely in the 1830s, re-published by Anti-Slavery Societies in London, Newcastle and Philadelphia and sold by private booksellers, as one edition suggests: "printed by a benevolent individual, and sold for him by B. Bagster, at the Depot of Slavery and Temperance Publications" (London: 183[?]).