Themes Collections
Articles
Multimedia About Support Search
log_in

Slavery in Jamaica, Records from a Family of Slave Owners, 1686-1860

This collection contains records detailing the Goulburn family’s longstanding ownership of the Amity Hall plantation and associated properties in Jamaica during the 17th and 18th centuries. The plantation had 300 acres of land cultivated for the lucrative sugar cane and at its peak housed almost 300 enslaved people.

Most of the papers concern the properties when they were administered by Conservative MP Henry Goulburn between 1805 and 1856. They provide a comprehensive overview of the operation and eventual abolition of the slave trade in Jamaica and the West Indies. This covers everything from abolitionist criticism of Goulburn’s plantation to resistance and organisation of enslaved workers.

Note: This collection is accompanied by an online guide written by Professor Kenneth Morgan.  

The Goulburn Papers provide essential information on how one absentee planter coped with the issues of abolitionism, amelioration, slave emancipation, apprenticeship and full freedom for blacks in Jamaica

Kenneth Morgan, Brunel University

Key Documents

(Video)

(Exhibit)

Insights

Miscellaneous papers & correspondence relating to the management of the estate' includes a valuation of Margaret Williams Samson and her seven children as the estate's property.
The 'correspondence with factors & sales accounts' discusses the management of the estate. Other letters list paid workers, their pay and their roles.
The 'miscellaneous papers relating to Henry Goulburn's parliamentary candidature' reveal the influence of the abolitionist movement on the slave owner's election to represent Cambridge University.
The 'correspondence with agents and others' covers a discussion upon whether children who were slaves should be separated from their parents in July 1807.
No downloads are currently available.

Filters

Showing  1–8  of  75  
Document
Inventory and valuation, 1789 Jan. to June 9
Document
Statements of account (1805-1830)
Document
Letters and printed papers relating to Henry Goulburn's parliamentary candidature (Apr 1831-May 1832
Document
Copy letters re opposition to Henry Goulburn's parliamentary candidature (Feb-May 1826)
Document
Letters from Henekell DuBuisson & Co. (May-Nov 1856)
Document
Letters from Henekell DuBuisson & Co. (Nov 1854-Nov 1855)
Document
Letters from Daniel Wilkes and other papers (1845-1855)
Document
Letters from William Goore (Jan 1796-May 1805)