Montpelier, Jamaica: A Plantation Community in Slavery and Freedom 1739-1912 (hard cover) - Hardcover

Higman, B. W.; Aarons, George A.; Karklins, Karlis; Reitz, Elizabeth J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 976640075X ISBN 13: 9789766400750

Publisher: University Press of the West Indies, 1998

Synopsis

This volume examines Montpelier Jamaica, a plantation community, in slavery and freedom from 1739-1912.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

This book is a detailed study of the life of a Jamaican plantation community during slavery and the post-emancipation period. It is based on archaeological investigations as well as more traditional documentary sources. The family and household structure of the slave population is analysed, and linked to the physical layout of the village. A comprehensive picture of the material culture of the plantation workers is facilitated by the combining of sources, to cover everything from food ways to clothing, ornament and architecture.

Montpelier was one of the largest plantations established in Jamaica, covering 10,000 acres by the end of the eighteenth century, when it supported two sugar works and three separate villages with a population of 1,000. One of the works was destroyed during the slave rebellion of 1831/32, and sugar production was abandoned completely in the 1850s. The entire property shifted to livestock, and by the end of the nineteenth century the villages were deserted. This book seeks to reconstruct the physical form and cultural characteristics of those lost villages.

About the Author:

B. W. Higman is Professor of History at the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra.

About this edition

• Publisher: University Press of the West Indies
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 976640075X
• ISBN 13: 9789766400750
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 450