| Abstract: | Historians who have studied Jamaican coffee plantations have concluded that plantation production was insignificant after about 1850. I argue that this conclusion is based on an uncritical acceptance of the information contained in one source, a report of the House of Assembly. A critical reading of this document, in its historical context, casts doubt on the conclusion. I further show that many more plantations survived into the 1880s than has been previously recognised. These plantations, although producing a relatively small proportion of Jamaica's coffee, were central to building Jamaica's reputation as a producer of some of the world's best coffee. |
