Every year, slave owners responsible for managing
estates were required by Jamaican law to submit to the local vestry
an account of the whites, slaves, and livestock on their properties.
Whites were listed by first name and surname; slaves were denoted
by first name, sometimes accompanied by a modifier referring to
age, occupation, or ethnicity; and stock were merely enumerated.
Thus, on July 3, 1782, Thomas Thistlewood, penkeeper and proprietor
of Breadnut Island Pen, rode to Savanna La Mar and
handed to his fellow vestrymen the names of his thirty-two slaves.
The list began with the first slave that he owned—an Ibo slave
called Lincoln—and ended with his most recent addition—
Nancy, the one-year-old daughter of Phoebe, a Coromantee slave
purchased in 1765. He also noted that he owned thirty unnamed
head of cattle
