Designation of slave values on Worthy Park 1730| ��ƽ��

Number of slaves assigned each value on the Worthy Park plantation in Jamaica in 1730 by age, gender and race (in British pounds sterling)

Characteristic	Black adult, male	Black adult, female	Black child, male	Black child, female	Indigenous, unknown age or gender
10 GBP-30 GBP	-	-	-	-	6
20 GBP	-	27	-	-	-
25 GBP	25	-	25	29	-
45 GBP	-	48	-	-	-
50 GBP	82	-	-	-	-

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Source

Release date

1978

More information

Region

Jamaica

Survey time period

1730

Supplementary notes

The cumulative assigned value of each group is as follows:
107 black male adults:4,725 GBP
75 black female adults: 2,700 GBP
25 black male children: 625 GBP
29 black female children: 725 GBP
6 indigenous slaves: ~120 GBP*

*The specific value of the indigenous slaves was not given, therefore a median estimate of twenty pounds each has been used for this calculation

Worthy Park was a large and successful plantation in Jamaica, founded in the 17^th century. In an academic context, Worthy Park's records are fairly detailed and well preserved, and provide a valuable insight into the history of Caribbean plantations and slavery.

Citation formats

The 242 slaves held on the Worthy Park Estate, Jamaica, in 1730, were assigned a cumulative value of 8,895 British pounds sterling. Black adult males made up just 44 percent of Worthy Park's slave population in 1730, however their assigned value was over 53 percent of the total slave value; adult female slaves were assigned a value fairly proportional to their share of the population, whereas child slaves were valued much lower than adults. Additionally the adults of each gender were separated into two groups, with the old, sick or disabled males assigned half of the value of younger males, while the old, sick or disabled females were valued at below half of their younger counterparts. It was estimated that 80 percent of Worthy Park's slaves in 1730 were born in Africa; this is reflective of the low survival and fertility rates of Caribbean slave plantations in these years, which relied on the importation of African slaves in order to sustain their slave populations.