Slavery and Revolution

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Category Archives: Plantation management

Simon Taylor to Chaloner Arcedeckne, 1 June 1786

By Admms |

The 1780s were a transformative decade in Taylorā€™s life. The American War and its aftermath transformed his political outlook towards a distrust of the British government in London, a perspective that became more entrenched with the advent of the parliamentary campaign against the slave trade in 1788. His sugar estates were adversely affected by the […]

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Simon Taylor to Chaloner Arcedeckne, 10 October 1783

By Admms |

By the end of 1783, Taylor expressed his satisfaction with work at Golden Grove, under the supervision of the overseer, Madden. Taylor described his plans for improving the cultivation and productivity of Golden Grove, which included the purchase of more enslaved workers and the avoidance of ‘jumping crops’, which were years of heightened productivity created […]

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Simon Taylor to Chaloner Arcedeckne, 26 June 1783

By Admms |

Taylor, despite his loyalty to Britain before and during the American War, was disillusioned with British policy by 1783 and believed that the remaining American colonies, such as Jamaica, were over taxed and abused by the metropole. He assessed the islandā€™s prospects of becoming more self-sufficient with regard to clothing and livestock as well as […]

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Simon Taylor to Chaloner Arcedeckne, 1 June 1783

By Admms |

Economic prospects for Taylor and Arcedeckne improved with the ending of the war. Taylor laid out his plans for buying more enslaved workers from the next ā€˜Guinea manā€™ (slave ship) to arrive from ā€˜a goodā€™ part of Africa and indicated that slaves from Africa were in much demand across the Caribbean. He noted that the […]

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Simon Taylor to Chaloner Arcedeckne, 24 February 1783

By Admms |

After taking full control of Arcedeckneā€™s Jamaican properties from John Kelly, Taylor sought to reassure his friend that they would be well managed. This extract illustrates how far the sugar estates relied upon a large and healthy enslaved workforce and aspects of the economic relationship between livestock rearing farms, or pens, and the estates. Both […]

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