The enslavers' own punishment records: Barrow and Thistlewood

SUMMARYThe enslavers' own punishment records: Barrow and Thistlewood [Connections: espionage peonage, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDBennet H. Barrow, owner of Highland Plantation, West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, recorded in his own diary (1833–1846) 160 whippings over 23 months in 1840–41 among 77 field workers: one every 4.5 days; 60 of the 77 were whipped at least once (80% of men, 70% of women), nearly 80% for "poor work." Original: LSU Libraries Special Collections, Mss. 2978 (microfilm and typed transcription). Published: E. A. Davis, Plantation Life in the Florida Parishes of Louisiana, 1836–1846 (1943)

RECORDThomas Thistlewood's diaries, Jamaica 1750–1786, record his punishments in detail, his sexual assaults on more than 100 women, runaways, and Tacky's War. Beinecke Library, Yale, OSB MSS 176; fully digitized

PATTERNThese are enslavers writing against themselves: admissions by hostile witnesses (Rule 13)

OPENMasonic membership of Barrow or Thistlewood: no record found yet (needs deep research). Check the Feliciana Lodge No. 31, St. Francisville, records (LSU Mss. 4777, from 1840; membership files) and Jamaica lodge returns to the Grand Lodge of England

OPENOne diary can't say how often every plantation whipped; historians say "we simply do not know." Needs more ledgers and overseer journals (Southern Historical Collection, UNC; LSU plantation collections)

SOURCELSU Libraries finding aid; Roark et al., "How Often Were Slaves Whipped?" (Bedford/Macmillan); Beinecke Library.