Thomas Thristlewood

THE DIARY OF THOMAS THRISLEWOOD

Optimism vs Truth

Slavery in the 18th century is has been examined and looked at for quite some time now. It is one of the major concerns involving ethnical and racial prejudices in today's society. Slavery, seen as a touchy subject by many, is an issue in which no one really likes discussing injustice brought upon by early Europeans to many cultures and not just blacks. Were the accusations justified or was the truth twisted? Diaries of the plantation owners, educated slaves, tradesmen as well as historical documents are all used to paint us a picture. The diary of Thomas Thristlewood is one of these resources two distinguished writers looked at and examined. Two very different views emerged out of the same diary concerning humanity, love and relations between people.

The quote "Love is a journey, not a destination" was clearly not questioned by either writer, though love in its deranged sense was the main topic argued in their works. Neither author stops to give us a definition of what they see love as. D. G. Hall introduces Thomas as a son of an English well to do farmer who after some travels settles on the island of Jamaica. He is assigned to Vineyard, where he's the only white person, leaving him no one to rely on but the slaves. Hall leaves us with an impression that his encounter during this time plays a role in how he treats his slaves in the future,: "And so, in a very real sense, Thomas Thristlewood, newcomer, was seasoned by a first year of apprenticeship among a long-resident slave population." They gave him recipes, cures, and told him stories and secrets, leading towards a bond unlike any other between whites and slaves. D.G. Hall sets out to prove that this bond is the key in Thomas' love life, which is why he uses it at the beginning of his article. According to him, Thomas Thristlewood, though he had other women, loved only one truly with his heart, by the name of Phibbah, and cared for her despite the fact that she was someone else's slave. By someone else's slave, one means that she was almost undoubtedly sexually active with her master. Sexually active with her master and ten others would be the response of Hilary McD Beckles, the opposing author of the diary. Love was not even close to being a factor in those times, according to Beckles. Involuntary sex activities, rapes and gift receiving sex favors are a lightly translated version of Hilary's views of those times. Unlike Hall's view, filled with care and occasional voluntary sexual interaction, Beckles' view is filled with numbers and stats right out of Thristlewood's diary about disgusting mandatory rules concerning women slaves and their owners.

Admitting that the word love was never uttered by Mr. Thristlewood, Hall explains that Thomas cared for Phibbah deeply favoring her over all the other slaves. In the defense of "love" between slaves and whites, Hall adds more examples of other white men having "affectionate relations with slave women" (Hall, 20). Apparently, buying a slave and letting her live in your home resembled a wife. According to Thristlewood's diary, there was Mr. Mordiner and Quasheba; Mr. Hartnole had Little Mimber, among others. Hall does not deny the occasional forced sexual interference as well as prostitution but he firmly believes that "within the slave society, there was room for real affection between men and women, free and slave". Occasional forced sexual labor is exactly what Beckles attacked. Thomas Thristlewood was a man out to make a name for himself in Jamaica. Beckles sees him as a "sexually promiscuous colonist" (Beckles, 40) involved in rape and prosperous sexual acts, prosperous for the slaves that is. As an early form of prostitution, gifts were given to the slave women as payment for sex. We know this to be true due to the fact that gifts would be taken away if the women did not do it willfully and on more than one occasion. This gave him enormous supremacy over these women empowering his masculinity. And even though D. G. Hall claims that,: "The nature of the diaries suggests that they were not intended for the information of future generations, or even his contemporaries...Thristlewood tells us what and when, but very seldom why."(Hall, 15), one still wonders about the real reason for the diary. This does prove Hall's point in that Mr. Thristlewood had no reason to lie about his life on Jamaica, but looking at the piece by Beckles, it is clearly noticeable that Hall chose to leave out some of the details, and with reason.

The diary was kept to record occurrences on the plantations, but by the looks of it, that same diary was not much more than a sexual memoir. It was as if Thristlewood had a goal to sleep with the most women on the island and then to prove it he could use his diary as a proof. He had names, dates, how many times and sometimes even where. The sexual attack on the black women was an important part of the white culture due to the shortage of white women on the island. According to Beckles, there were 170,000 slaves working for 18,000 whites over the course of 5 decades. "... 'love', like labor, was an integral expectation of the package of benefits derived from mastery." (Beckles, 40) Hilary sets out to prove her view using Thomas' own diary against him. Not denying his "care, sympathy and desire" (Beckles, 47) for his 'wife' Phibbah, she proceeds by adding that when he defined Phibbah as his wife, Mr. Thristlewood had other sexual partners. In the twisted minds of the whites residing on the plantations, rape was not possible. They considered it a right to have sex with their slaves since slaves were nothing but possessions. Punishment, bribery and prostitution were all "voluntary" ways

...