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Conclusion to Part III

from Part III - Tristram in the Tropics: or, Reading in Jamaica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2023

April G. Shelford
Affiliation:
American University, Washington DC
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Summary

The Conclusion to Part III follows William Hickey during his visit to Jamaica in 1775. His activities confirm the arrival of the consumer revolution on the island. This made Jamaica, in Trevor Burnard’s terms, “the jewel in the British imperial crown,” and introduced an array of consumer goods and cultural amenities such as cafes and theaters. This is the world in which Jamaicans had as much access to published materials as they desired whether through purchase from local merchants or metropolitan booksellers, orders through factors in England, or borrowing from friends. Analyses of Robert Long’s and Thomas Thistlewood’s notes focused on the themes of slavery, race, and religion, revealing a dynamic reading process in which they were anything but passive receptacles for Enlightenment ideas. Indeed, even when they read the same work, they came to very different conclusions about it. While the conclusions they drew cannot be generalized to all Jamaicans, they demonstrate the potential variety of viewpoints on issues importance to all of them. Like colonial and metropolitan readers, through reading they determined what “Enlightenment” meant to them and took possession of it.

Type
Chapter
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A Caribbean Enlightenment
Intellectual Life in the British and French Colonial Worlds, 1750–1792
, pp. 243 - 246
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Conclusion to Part III
  • April G. Shelford, American University, Washington DC
  • Book: A Caribbean Enlightenment
  • Online publication: 14 September 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009360821.019
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  • Conclusion to Part III
  • April G. Shelford, American University, Washington DC
  • Book: A Caribbean Enlightenment
  • Online publication: 14 September 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009360821.019
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Conclusion to Part III
  • April G. Shelford, American University, Washington DC
  • Book: A Caribbean Enlightenment
  • Online publication: 14 September 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009360821.019
Available formats
×