"Generally Fitt to be Trusted": Social Networks and the Moral Economies of Sugar Plantations in Early Anglo-Jamaica

Abstract

This thesis argues that white residents in seventeenth-century Jamaica circulated within an economy of obligation, or an economic culture in which character, reputation and trust were vital, particularly as it related to financial credit. Much like their contemporaries in England, Anglo-Jamaicans were keenly interested in the integrity of obligations they undertook with individuals in England and in Jamaica. Anglo-Jamaicans also integrated new institutions, like African-based labour systems, into their own understandings of character. This thesis focuses on the social networks, or the social and economic ties between individuals, that ran through Bybrook. Bybrook was an early example of a sugar plantation in Jamaica and was owned by the Helyar family between 1669 and 1713. The research is based on the Helyar manuscripts, a set of private letters, account books and other miscellaneous documents written during their ownership of the plantation.