Intricacies and Issues in Interweaving Public Records to Illuminate the Enslaved Community at Papine Estate, Jamaica in the Early 1800s

Abstract

Abstract: Until an 1817 census mandated by the British government, the lives of enslaved individuals throughout the British West Indies remained outside the public record; the purview of largely unavailable plantation records and correspondence. Even the 1817 baseline and subsequent triennial returns provide very sparse information. Yet these and other public records can be interwoven to even dimly illuminate some of these majority populations, challenging the archival silences and contributing to our understanding of the character of lives within slavery. This article focuses on the Papine Estate, St Andrew, Jamaica, for which no estate records have been located, yet where this interweaving of diverse public records illuminates some aspects of the lives of the enslaved community and individuals, especially family—unusually including male as well as female participation.