Thomas Atwood | |
---|---|
Chief Justice of the Bahamas | |
In office 1774–1785 [1] | |
Succeeded by | John Matson |
Chief Justice of Dominica | |
In office 1766–1773 [2] | |
Succeeded by | James Ashley Hall |
Personal details | |
Died | 27 May 1793 |
Nationality | British |
Thomas Atwood (died 1793) [3] was chief justice of the island of Dominica,and afterwards of the Bahamas. [4]
Although there are no records of the biographical details of Atwood's life,he wrote the first complete account of Dominica from both a historical and general perspective,The History of the Island of Dominica. In it he explained his belief that Dominica was able to be the best colony that the English held in the West Indies,due to its high proportion of fertile and uncultivated land. [5]
From a historical perspective,he explained that the island had flourished due to the free port of Roseau between 1770 and 1775,however due to mismanagement and "disadvantages" under the French rule after invasion of Dominica in 1778 until their surrender in 1783. However,he expressed his opinion that the island could be turned around with additional cattle and an increase of enslaved Africans for the sugar plantations. [5] The history was published in 1791,and he also published a pamphlet - Observations on the true method of treatment and usage of the Negro slaves in the British West India Islands in which he defended slavery,claiming that the slaves were treated better than English workers back home. [5]
Atwood's description of Dominica during the American Revolution was directly incorporated by Bryan Edwards into his 1793 The History,Civil and Commercial,of the British Colonies in the West Indies. [6] [7]
Atwood died in the King's Bench prison "at an advanced age,broken down with misfortunes,on 27 May 1793." [8]
The extinct Dominican green-and-yellow macaw is named Ara atwoodi in honour of his description of it in his 1791 The History of the Island of Dominica. [9]
Saint Lucia was inhabited by the Arawak and Kalinago Caribs before European contact in the early 16th century. It was colonized by the British and French in the 17th century and was the subject of several possession changes until 1814, when it was ceded to the British by France for the final time. In 1958, St. Lucia joined the short-lived semi-autonomous West Indies Federation. Saint Lucia was an associated state of the United Kingdom from 1967 to 1979 and then gained full independence on February 22, 1979.
The Danish West Indies or Danish Virgin Islands or Danish Antilles were a Danish colony in the Caribbean, consisting of the islands of Saint Thomas with 32 square miles (83 km2); Saint John with 19 square miles (49 km2); and Saint Croix with 84 square miles (220 km2). The islands have belonged to the United States as the Virgin Islands since they were purchased in 1917. Water Island was part of the Danish West Indies until 1905, when the Danish state sold it to the East Asiatic Company, a private shipping company.
The institution of slavery in the European colonies in North America, which eventually became part of the United States of America, developed due to a combination of factors. Primarily, the labor demands for establishing and maintaining European colonies resulted in the Atlantic slave trade. Slavery existed in every European colony in the Americas during the early modern period, and both Africans and indigenous peoples were targets of enslavement by Europeans during the era.
Beilby Porteus, successively Bishop of Chester and of London, was a Church of England reformer and a leading abolitionist in England. He was the first Anglican in a position of authority to seriously challenge the Church's position on slavery.
The Haitian Revolution was a successful insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule in Saint-Domingue, now the sovereign state of Haiti.
The coastwise slave trade existed along the southern and eastern coastal areas of the United States in the antebellum years prior to 1861. Hundreds of vessels of various capacities domestically traded loads of slaves along waterways, generally from the Upper South which had a surplus of slaves to the Deep South where new cotton plantations created high demand for labor.
Samuel Greg was an Irish-born businessman and industrialist of the Industrial Revolution and a pioneer of the factory system. Born in Belfast, Ireland, he moved to England and built Quarry Bank Mill in Styal, Cheshire, which at his retirement was the largest textile mill in the country. He and his wife Hannah Greg assumed welfare responsibilities for their employees, many of whom were children, building a model village alongside the factory. At the same time, Greg inherited and operated a slave plantation in the West Indies.
Slavery in the British and French Caribbean refers to slavery in the parts of the Caribbean dominated by France or the British Empire.
Bryan Edwards, FRS was an English politician and historian born in Westbury, Wiltshire. Edwards supported the slave trade, and was described by abolitionist William Wilberforce as a powerful opponent.
The Society of the Friends of the Blacks was a French abolitionist society founded by Jacques Pierre Brissot and Étienne Clavière and directly inspired by the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade founded in London in 1787. The society's aim was to abolish both the institution of slavery in the France's overseas colonies and French involvement in the Atlantic slave trade.
British America comprised the colonial territories of the English Empire, and the successor British Empire, in the Americas from 1607 to 1783. These colonies were formally known as British America and the British West Indies immediately prior to thirteen of the colonies seceding in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) and forming the United States of America.
United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG) is a United Kingdom-based charitable organization.
Colonel Sir Thomas Modyford, 1st Baronet was a planter of Barbados and Governor of Jamaica from 1664 to 1671.
Richard Robert Madden was an Irish doctor, writer, abolitionist and historian of the United Irishmen. Madden took an active role in trying to impose anti-slavery rules in Jamaica on behalf of the British government.
Sir William Young, 2nd Baronet, FRS, FSA was a British politician, colonial administrator and planter. He was the governor of Tobago from 1807 – January 1815, and Member of Parliament for St Mawes, 19 June 1784 – 3 November 1806, and Buckingham, 5 November 1806 – 23 March 1807.
London Bourne was a former Barbadian slave who became a wealthy merchant and abolitionist.
James Tobin (1736/7–1817) was a prominent merchant and planter based in Nevis. During his life, he became one of the most prominent proslavery activists from the West Indies.
James Laing (c.1749–1831) was a Scottish doctor and slave plantation owner in Dominica.
Colonel Thomas Moody (1779–1849) was a British geopolitical expert to the Colonial Office; Commander of the Royal Engineers; Home Secretary for Foreign Parliamentary Commissioners; Director of the British Royal Gunpowder Manufactory; and Director of the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Land Company.
Major-General Sir Evan John Murray-Macgregor of Macgregor, 2nd Baronet, was a Scottish colonial administrator and senior British army officer.
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