In 1833, Thomas Buxton presented a bill in Parliament that was the culmination of fifty years of abolitionist agitation, enacting an end to slavery in all territories under British dominion. Although passed in August 1833 for implementation one year later, the bill mandated that full emancipation would wait. While enslaved children were to be freed immediately, adults were required to serve out a four year "apprenticeship" under their former masters in order, as the act's supporters suggested, to compensate the masters for lost property, to encouirage "the industry of the manumitted slaves" and ensure the continuity of the labor supply, and to prevent social disorder.

In Jamaica in particular, the years following apprenticeship were marked by a protracted struggle between former slaves seeking more control over the lives and labor and plantation owners seeking more control over their labor force. During this critical period, Isaac Jackson was engaged as resident manager for the business affairs of as many as a dozen estates in northwestern Jamaica, most of which were engaged in the production of sugar, rum, and cattle.

Physical description

3 vols., ca.575p.

3 vols., ca.575p.

Provenance

Acquired, 2003.

Preferred citation

Cite as: Isaac Jackson Letterbooks, American Philosophical Society.

Processing information

Cataloged rsc, 2003.

Related material

The APS houses several other collections related to sugar production, most notably the microfilms of the Thistlewood Family Papers (16 reels, Film 1461) and the papers of Aemilius Irving (call no. Ms Coll 100), both of Jamaica, and the Records of the Penang Sugar Estates in Malaysia (call no. 664.1 P19).

Bibliography

African American History Note

A rich source of material on plantation management and the transition from a system of forced labor to free labor.

Early American History Note

This manuscript collection falls outside the geographic scope of the Early American guide (British North America and the United States before 1840). It may be of interest to scholars interested in global history, international relations, imperialism, or the U.S. in the world.

• Letterbooks

• Jamaica -- History

• Allen, Robert
• Campbell, Alexander
• Dunlap, Alexander
• Gardiner, Edmund
• Hawthorn and Shedden
• Heath, William
• Heaven and Co.
• Hislop, L.
• Jackson, Isaac
• James, Philip Haughton
• Kembles and Trower
• Knott, William H.
• Kynaston, Roger
• Lyon, David
• McNeil, J.
• Seaford, Charles Rose Ellis, 1st Baron
• Weekes, Rebecca Ann
• Wilson, Frances E.

• Abolition, emancipation, freedom
• Belvidere (Plantation : Jamaica)
• Beyond Early America
• Campbell's Copse (Plantation : Jamaica)
• Flint River (Plantation : Jamaica)
• Freedmen -- Jamaica
• Gibraltar Estates (Plantation : Jamaica)
• Labor -- Jamaica
• Montpelier (Plantation : Jamaica)
• Paradise (Plantation : Jamaica)
• Plantations
• Plantations -- Jamaica
• Slaves, slavery, slave trade
• Sugar -- Jamaica