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Samuel Martin (planter)
British West Indian planter (c. 1694–1777) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Colonel Samuel Martin (c. 1694 – 1777) was a British West Indian planter who wrote Essay upon Plantership (1754). He is known as "Samuel Martin the Elder" to distinguish him from his son,[1] Samuel Martin, who served as a British member of parliament and the secretary to the Treasury.
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Early life and career
Martin was born on the Greencastle estate in Antigua,[2] to Major Samuel Martin who, in 1701, was murdered during a slave revolt after having demanded the enslaved Africans on his estate work on Christmas Day. The seven year old Samuel escaped a similar fate, being hidden in nearby fields by his nanny. She was herself enslaved and was subsequently freed in recognition of this act.[2] The younger Samuel was sent to live with family in Ireland while his mother remarried Edward Byam.[3]
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Personal life
Martin fathered 21 children, at least 16 of whom died during his lifetime.[4] The eldest son, Samuel, became a British member of parliament and the secretary to the Treasury; Henry became comptroller of the Navy, a member of parliament, and a baronet; Josiah was governor of North Carolina.[5]
Essay upon Plantership
In 1754, Martin wrote Essay upon Plantership, a treatise on managing a sugar plantation.[6][7] It appeared in at least seven editions between 1750 and 1802. In the work, he urged planters to treat their slaves with “tenderness and generosity”; the aim was to induce “love” by setting an example of “benevolence, justice, temperance, and chastity.” When Janet Schaw, a Scot, visited his Greencastle estate in Antigua in 1774, she described the eighty-year-old planter in rosy terms, as “a kind and beneficent Master,” who was “daily employed” to render the island “more improved.”[8]
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Further reading
External links
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