So heres an example, Bashir continued. One of the most comprehensive first-person accounts of slavery comes from the personal diary of a man called Thomas Thistlewood, who kept copious notes for 39 years. Thistlewood was the son of a tenant farmer, who arrived on the island of Jamaica in April 1750, and assumed the position of overseer at a major plantation.
What is most shocking about Thistlewoods diary is not simply the fact that he assumes the right to own and possess other human beings, but is the sheer cruelty and brutality of his regime, Bashir added. In 1756, he records that a slave named Darby catched eating kanes had him well flogged and pickled, then made Hector, another slave, s-h-i-t in his mouth.
This became known as Darbys Dose, a punishment invented by Thistlewood that spoke only of inhumanity. And he mentions a similar incident in 1756, his time in relation to a man he refers to as Punch. Flogged punch well, and then washed and rubbed salt pickle, lime juice and bird pepper, made Negro Joe piss in his eyes and mouth, Bashir recited.
