This site is about Jamaica and slavery during the Age of Revolution. It was created by Christer Petley, Professor of Atlantic History, at the University of Southampton.
The site includes transcriptions from letters written by Simon Taylor, a wealthy and powerful Jamaican slaveholder. These letters are an important source of information about Caribbean slavery during the Age of Revolution that can help us to understand how slaveholding was perpetuated, resisted and, eventually, ended in the British empire.
It also includes material relating to the Baptist War of 1831-32: a large antislavery uprising by enslaved people in western Jamaica. This includes a transcription of documents from the trial of Samuel Sharpe, one of the principal leaders of the uprising.
The site contains news and posts, including blog-posts and short articles, about slavery in Britain and America, and its legacies.
You can also use the ‘contexts‘ section of this site to learn about slavery and abolition during the period shaped by the American, French and Haitian Revolutions – between about 1775 and 1838.
The documents showcased here formed part of the research for this book (click on the cover image to find out more) and for ongoing projects about the politics of slavery in the British Atlantic world:
