#RoyalVisitJamaica made u want 2find out more about Jamaica, Britain, slavery, wealth & #Reparations ? Search: Legacies of British Slavery website. It tracks who the slave-owners were 1763-1834 & how they invested ££. THREAD: how 2use it 2research #Jamaica ucl.ac.uk/lbs// 
To find out more about the slave-owners who claimed 4 £20 million compensation from Brit gov for their 'property' in people at the end of slavery in 1834 click on the 'Advanced Search' tab & select 'Jamaica' from the 'Colony' drop down menu in the 'Claims' section.
There were 13,188 claims (out of 46,000) made relating to Jamaica. Slave-owners & their creditors received the bulk of the ££. If you're interested in a particular parish narrow down the search by using the drop down menu for 'Parish' and selecting the place you are interested in
If you know the name of the estate (plantation/pen/house) then you can click on the 'Estates' tab & select Jamaica from the 'Colony' drop down menu. There are 6748 Jamaican estates in the database (out of 12,375 across the Caribbean) covering the period c.1763-1834
Not sure which parish / estate your search might relate to but you know roughly where the plantation was? You can use the map function to find out more. Click on the 'Map' tab & select 'Jamaica'. You'll see a historic map from 1804 but it can be viewed as a modern map as well
You can zoom into the area - each white circle is a named plantation or livestock pen. Hover the cursor over the place you are interested in & click on it to find out more about the estate. If you click on the 'open full page' link you can read the database entry for the estate
The estate page will give you info on people associated with the estate (owner, mortgage holder, trustee, attorney etc). Compensation claims & how much ££ received. Estate info - what it produced. Slave register entries 1817-32: how many enslaved men & women were held there
Want to find out more about the slave-owner & how they spent their slave-produced ££? Click on their name & go through to their biography. Info on family connections, address in Britain (town/country house) & legacies (political, commercial, cultural, physical, imperial)
Some men & women who died in Jamaica left inventories of their possessions. The database has 10,219 inventories from 1674-1784 transcribed by Trevor Burnard @WilberforceHull. You can search by clicking on the 'Inventory' tab & looking up or clicking on a named individual.
Read guidance notes 2 find more on inventories. They often gave info on ownership of enslaved people, 'value' of enslaved people, value of the estate, exchange rates, debts, cash & land. You can use @UkNatArchives old ££ converter 2 find out value 2day nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency-conve…
There are a wealth of miscellaneous documents which were transcribed by Patricia Jackson for her 'Jamaican Family Search' website. Click on the tab 'Centre'. Go 2 the bottom right hand side & under 'Related Work' you'll find the link for the JFS website
It's a treasure trove of documents: baptisms, acts of assembly (to trace free people of colour & their rights), Jamaica Almanacs, directories, land grants, French emigrants from Haiti, gazetteers, census, returns of Maroons, monumental inscriptions & more
LBS Website focuses on slave-owners (4 now-new research planned). U can find out more on enslaved people in JA using Slave Registers 1817-1832 via @AncestryUK. U have to sign up 4 an account but access is free thanks 2 campaigning by @Windrush1948 & others ancestry.co.uk/search/collect…
How does all this info relate 2 reparations? It provides an evidential basis (partial: more research needs to be done e.g. @NicholasRadburn project on legacies of slave trading) 4 understanding the economic system of slavery & how the wealth it generated was diffused in Britain
Understanding why reparations is an issue in Caribbean means understanding history of slavery, colonialism & their unequal legacies. PM Cameron made the mistake of thinking this hist could be 'moved on from' in 2015. Image: Jamaica Gleaner, 2015, Las May anniepaul.net/2015/10/03/rep…
Royal family has direct links 2 slavery as @DrBrookeNewman has shown. 4 many (not all) Jamaicans they are a relic from colonial days & symbolise hierarchy, hereditary privilege & inequality. In contrast JA's National Heroes are antislavery / anticolonial slate.com/news-and-polit…
Slavery is an imp part of national identity in Caribbean. Listen 2 Director of Legacies of British Slavery Centre @UCLHistory Jamaican historian Prof. Matthew Smith @SenMattye at his inaugural lecture 'A Troubling Freedom: Power and Memories of Slavery'
#RoyalVisitJamaica comes after Windrush scandal, deportation flights, re-emergence of BLM, Meghan's exp of racism, & decision of Barbados 2remove the Queen as Head of State. In this context historical memory & lived experience converge raising Qs abt future. Image @Nadine_Writes
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
