Book Description

Born in 1776, Hamilton Brown came from Tullyloob, County Down, Ireland to Jamaica in order to earn his fortune. He came with his uncle, Alexander Hawthorne who became an attorney and found the young Hamilton a job as an estate bookkeeper for a new friend in Jamaica. Within a few years, Hamilton Brown had made a name for himself; buying and selling slaves and property. He would mortgage the property and before long owned more than 6 properties, each with a slave population. He lived in Saint Ann parish on the eastern side of Jamaica and represented the parish for 22 years in the House of Assembly of Jamaica. He founded Hamilton Town, which was later renamed Browns Town. He was a sugar planter and cattle breeder. He brought over 300 people from Balleymoney, County Antrim, Ireland to Saint Anne in a brig that he owned, but most were little more than white slaves unless they had specific skills. He was often criticized for his treatment of his slaves and workers. When he died in 1843 it is guessed that he had more than 30 children himself by different slave women, a common thing for slave owners in Jamaica. Although he never married, he left part of his property to his son Hamilton Brown Jr, a mulatto whose mother was Kate Williams, a Negro Ebo slave who was brought to Jamaica before 1832 when slavery was abolished in Great Britain. The picture on the front cover is of Turtle River Falls in Saint Ann Parish,