Jamaica Ladies

Focusing on the pivotal role of women in the British Empire, this study highlights the contributions of free and freed women of various descents in perpetuating chattel slavery in Jamaica. Beginning in the 1670s, these women significantly influenced the colony's wealth and stability by acquiring enslaved individuals to bolster their social standing and autonomy. Their actions were instrumental in establishing English dominance and expanding the slave labor system, making Jamaica the wealthiest slaveholding colony in the Anglo-Atlantic world.