Rethinking the Decline of the British-Caribbean Planter Class: A Case Study of Simon Taylor of Jamaica, 1760 - 1813

该项目将对英属西印度群岛种植园主在美国、法国和海地民主革命时期的社会、文化和政治活动提供宝贵的新见解；转向更加集权和专制的英国殖民政策；以及跨大西洋废奴运动的兴起。这一时期，种植园主的政治影响力、文化声誉和经济前景也有所下降，因为在加勒比地区拥有财产的奴隶主努力应对大都市对奴隶制的批评所带来的政治问题，以及美国革命导致的失去大陆贸易伙伴所带来的实际问题。这些广泛的主题将通过广泛和丰富的信件收集西蒙·泰勒，谁是一个富有的和政治上有影响力的牙买加甘蔗种植园主探索。泰勒写给朋友、商业伙伴、政治盟友和家庭成员的信，揭示了他生活的方方面面，从他与自由色情人的关系到他在伦敦与反废奴主义者西印度委员会的政治交往。这个项目将把对这些信件的研究与其他来源的工作结合起来，如牙买加立法议会的记录、泰勒的最后遗嘱和遗嘱、当代报纸和其他出版材料。通过使用这些资料来研究泰勒和他所居住的世界，将有可能对18世纪下半叶的种植园主阶级进行比我们目前所拥有的更深入和微妙的分析。关键问题包括：泰勒和其他种植园主如何与当地社会的其他群体互动？例如，他是如何与糖业中较贫穷的白人管理人员互动的？他与自由肤色的情妇和混血儿的关系是什么？-泰勒和其他种植园主在1760年至1813年间如何以及在多大程度上改变了他们对奴隶的态度？他们是否调整了他们的管理技术或对待工人的态度来应对废奴运动？——泰勒的信件是如何以及在多大程度上将他与横跨大西洋的家庭、社会、商业和政治网络联系在一起的？泰勒伪造的大西洋网络把他和牙买加和英国以外的地方联系起来了吗？-泰勒和其他牙买加种植园主在英属大西洋奴隶制度的辩论中有多大的影响力？他和他的同事们在多大程度上能够延缓和影响英国奴隶制度的改革？像泰勒这样的种植园主如何看待他们与帝国大都会的联系？他们是如何调和他们与奴隶制的关系和他们作为不列颠人的身份的？他们是如何应对不断变化的大都会对英国特性的看法的？为了回答这些问题，这项工作将建立在我以前的研究基础上，包括我最近出版的专著《牙买加的奴隶主》（2009年）。我最近还完成了一个关于西蒙·泰勒的文化认同的小项目，作为这个项目的一部分，我研究了泰勒的一些信件。因此，我很清楚这些信件的价值，因为它们是研究英国加勒比奴隶社会和跨大西洋政治辩论的一个很大程度上尚未开发的资源。我还获得了一套完整的缩微胶卷的信件。

This project will shed valuable new light on the social, cultural and political activities of British West Indian planters during a period defined by democratic revolutions in America, France and Haiti; by a shift towards a more centralised and authoritarian British colonial policy; and by the rise of a transatlantic abolition movement. This period also saw a decline in the planters' political influence, cultural reputation and economic prospects, as slaveholders with properties in the Caribbean struggled to come to terms with the political problems posed by metropolitan criticisms of slavery and with the practical problems posed by the loss of mainland trading partners as a result of the American Revolution.These broad themes will be explored via the extensive and rich letter collection of Simon Taylor, who was a wealthy and politically influential Jamaican sugar planter. Taylor's letters to friends, business partners, political allies and family members reveal details about all aspects of his life, ranging from information about his relationship with a free-coloured mistress to his political engagement with the anti-abolitionist West India Committee in London. This project will combine research on these letters with work on other sources, such as records of the Jamaican legislative Assembly, Taylor's last will and testament, contemporary newspapers and other published material. By using these sources to study Taylor and the world he inhabited, it will be possible to present a far more in-depth and subtle analysis of the planter class during the second half of the eighteenth century than we possess at present.Key questions include:- How did Taylor and other planters interact with other groups in local society? For example, how did he interact with poorer white managerial staff on his sugar estates, and what was the nature of his relationship with his free-coloured mistress and mixed-race children?- How and to what extent did Taylor and other planters change their attitudes towards enslaved people between 1760 and 1813? Did they adapt their management techniques or their attitudes towards their workers in response to abolitionist campaigning?- How and to what extent did Taylor's letters bind him into family, social, business and political networks that spanned the Atlantic? Did the Atlantic networks that Taylor forged connect him to places other than Jamaica and Britain? - How influential were Taylor and other Jamaican planters during debates over the British Atlantic slave system? To what extent were he and his colleagues able to stave off and influence the reform of Britain's slave system?- How did planters like Taylor perceive their connection with the imperial metropole? How did they attempt to reconcile their involvement with slavery with their identities as Britons? How did they respond to changing metropolitan ideas about Britishness? In seeking to answer these questions, this work will build on my previous research, including my recently published monograph, Slaveholders in Jamaica (2009). I have also recently completed a short project on Simon Taylor's cultural identity, and as part of that, I worked on some of Taylor's letters. I therefore have a good sense of the value of these letters as a largely untapped source for the study of British Caribbean slave societies and transatlantic political debates. I have also acquired a full set of the letters on microfilm.