By the mid-eighteenth century, observers of the emerging overseas British Empire thought that Jamaicain addition to being the largest British colony in the West Indieswas the most valuable of the American colonies. Based on a unique set of historical lists and maps, along with a variety of other contemporary materials, Jack Greenes study provides unparalleled detail about the character of Jamaicas settler society during the decade of the 1750s, as the first century of British settlement drew to a close. Greenes sources facilitate a close examination of many aspects of the islands development at a particularly critical point in its history.

Analysis of the data generated from this material permits a fine-grained account of patterns of landholding, economic activity, land use, social organization, and wealth distribution among Jamaicas free population during a period of sustained demographic, economic, social, and cultural expansion. Calling attention to local variations, the study puts special emphasis on the complexity and vitality of Jamaicas settler population, the islands economic and social diversity, the ubiquity and adaptability of slavery, the character and size of settler households, the range of urban professions, the value of urban housing, and the gender and racial dimensions of wealth holding. Greenes detailed analyses amplify and enrich these subjects, offering the most refined portrait to date of Jamaican society at a crucial juncture in its formation and providing scholars a quantitative base for analyzing Jamaicas political economy in the second half of the eighteenth century.