African American
Boston, MA to Kingston, Jamaica, ca. 1851-1852
Freed Slave Observations 1851-82 Travel Journal on Voyage From Boston to Kingston
Diary/Journal

A travel journal written by an unknown seaman detailing travels aboard the Ship Holyoke, which left Boston in December of 1851 en route to Kingston, Jamaica and then to Trieste, Italy. Unpaginated. Entry dates range from December 5, 1851 to June 16, 1862, with the last day's record having been unfinished in this volume. Contents include the diarist's observations on sea travel and the inhabitants of Jamaica (i.e. former slaves), including black parishioners, physicians, and laborers, with descriptions of everyday life on the island. Features blue marble paper boards with soft leather spine and faint lettering visible: "1851-52". Exposed binding at middle, not affecting pages. General toning and creasing within. Overall, very good condition. With further research, could yield interesting discoveries!

Notable excerpts from Port Royal & Kingston, Jamaica include:

25th Thursday: "But the congregation, especially the female portion interested me the most, dressed as fantastically as negroes only can do. White was the prevailing color, highly embellished. Almost the entire audience responded audibly not mumbled as our people do. Thro' the entire service loud shouts were heard, proceeding from a street rabble in the square. As we remain over the sabbath shall have further opportunities of mingling with the colored population."

27th Saturday: "They never seem to sit, or stand, when unemployed, but always lie down. It is fun for me to watch them, they are completely ni---. The imitations I had seen were not as I thought, exaggerations. They must be singing constantly, while at work. It is amusing to hear them blackguard each other, calling each other brack (pot & kettle)."

28th Sunday: "Whole estates in close proximity are overgrown with shrubbery, the walls of extensive houses being in ruins, with no mark of being destroyed by fire. This is all the effect of the liberation of slaves by government & the ruin of many land holders. What inducement there can be for the inhabitants in affluent, or easy circumstances, to remain upon the island is a mystery. Many are leaving. Spent half an hour in a small house of worship of the most common construction & filled with an audience of the poorest class? most of them were very old, no doubt former slaves, but scrupulous by clean in their dress."

31st Wednesday: "Our cabin boy suffers from a bad eye, occasioned by a fall down the booby hatch a fortnight since. Accompanied him to the public hospital this morning, where he will remain during the week. The physicians are mostly blacks."

[1852] January 1st: "Spent the entire afternoon in the observatory & reading room of the Commercial. Read [Lajos] Kossuth's speech delivd in H. Ward Beecher's church, Brooklyn."

29th January: "Saw a party of Indians said to be the Seminoles departing from a hotel. Tho' was said they were chiefs, their appearance was not sufficiently distingue to indicated it."

Slavery in Jamaica was formally ended by the Abolition Act of 1833, passed in the aftermath of the Baptist War led by Samuel Sharpe. Nevertheless, relations between the white and black communities remained tense coming into the mid-19th century. Demographically by 1850, the black and mixed-race Jamaican populations outnumbered the white population by a ratio of twenty to one.

One account of life in Jamaica contemporary to our diarist comes from John Bigelow Sr. (1817-1911), an American lawyer and statesman who traveled to the island in 1850. The next year, he published Jamaica in 1850: Or, the Effects of Sixteen Years of Freedom on a Slave Colony as a way to refute the claim held by pro-slavery advocates (and seemingly our diarist) that the newly freed population should be blamed for the island's current economic decline. While Bigelow acknowledged a concerning decline in the standard of living, he argued that the reasons for such poverty was much more complex than his peers believed. At the same time, he also described many new and prosperous communities of formerly enslaved people who cultivated food in surplus to eat and sell, wholly separate from white plantations.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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