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chapter 5 “DoThou in Gentle Phibia Smile”: Scenes from an Interracial Marriage, Jamaica, 1754–86 Trevor Burnard The great crisis in the thirty-four-year relationship between Thomas Thistlewood, a white English immigrant to western Jamaica, and Phibbah, a native-born Jamaican slave, came in June 1757, three and a half years after Phibbah had established herself as his principal partner. Thistlewood had long been unhappy with his situation as an overseer on Egypt estate. He had had numerous arguments with his feckless employer, John Cope. Consequently, on June 18, 1757, Thistlewood agreed with “Mr John Parkinson to live at Kendal,” an estate about ten miles further inland from Egypt in Westmoreland Parish. He was “to have an hundred per ann. the first year and afterwards to have my wages raised” as well as sundry provisions.1 Thistlewood’s new situation had many advantages—increased wages, better conditions, and the severing of ties with Cope—but there was one major disadvantage . Thistlewood would now be physically separated from Phibbah, a woman, he lamented, who was “in miserable slavery.”2 Molly Cope, Phibbah’s owner, was unwilling to sell or hire her to Thistlewood.3 The parting was hard. “Phibbah grieves very much,” Thistlewood noted five days before he was due to depart. He “could not sleep, but vastly uneasy.”4 Thistlewood found Kendal estate in poor order and its slaves ill-disciplined.5 He missed Phibbah terribly.After she visited, Thistlewood wrote: “Tonight very lonely and melancholy again. No person sleep in the house but myself and Phibbah’s being gone this morning still fresh in my mind.”6 Phibbah’s plight was worse, even if we know about her emotions only indirectly and from Thistlewood’s perspective. Not only was she separated from a partner to whom she was emotionally attached but she was also in danger of losing some of her status as the privileged mistress of a white man if Thistlewood left Egypt per- Scenes from an Interracial Marriage, Jamaica, 1754–86 83 manently. Thus Phibbah found herself considering how to reestablish her relationship with Thistlewood and persuade him to return to Egypt.She had much to gain if she succeeded. On the evening of their parting Phibbah gave Thistlewood a gold ring “to keep for her sake.”7 She proved her affection by constantly visiting Thistlewood and showering him with gifts. On July 13, 1757, she brought him a turtle, eggs, a pineapple, biscuits, and cashews. She also acted as an intermediary between Thistlewood and his former employer Cope, who very much wanted him back. Cope realized how difficult it was to hire experienced slave overseers. Phibbah ferried offer and counteroffer between the two men,taking the great risk in consequence of alienating her owner and losing her position as principal household slave at Egypt. Phibbah faced several difficulties.First, Thistlewood was a noted philanderer who could replace her as his partner.At Kendal estate,indeed,Thistlewood took up briefly with a slave woman called Aurelia,making Phibbah jealous.8 Second, Thistlewood resisted making a deal with Cope who often made reckless promises that he did not keep. Third, Thistlewood received several generous offers of work elsewhere. Finally, Thistlewood resented that Cope occasionally prevented Phibbah from coming to Kendal estate.9 Eventually,however,Thistlewood relented,and on June 27, 1758, he agreed to return to Egypt estate at a considerably increased salary and with the promise that Cope would hire Thistlewood’s slaves. In part, Thistlewood returned because his conditions of employment had improved. But more important was his deep feeling for Phibbah. Her devotion had paid off. She and Thistlewood were never to part again. A relationship had been turned into a marriage, or at least the closest approximation of a marriage that was possible between a white man and a slave in eighteenth-century Jamaica. Moreover, Phibbah had established her own freedom. John and Molly Cope never again tried to dictate what Phibbah could or could not do.When Thistlewood left Egypt estate in 1767,John Cope did not object to Phibbah moving with Thistlewood to his new property at Breadnut Island. Phibbah was not legally freed until 1792, six years after Thistlewood’s death and after she was manumitted in Thistlewood’s will, but her real freedom came in 1758 when Thistlewood decided to return to Egypt. That Phibbah was effectively free from 1758 hides the awkward fact that she was technically a slave during all of the forty years...

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