John Bigelow’s Jamaica in 1850

Record summary

John Bigelow’s Jamaica in 1850, published in 1851, is an identifiable travel account containing observations about Jamaican society, religion, healing, and the colonial treatment of obeah. It offers a nineteenth-century comparison point for claims involving possession, sorcery, and therapeutic ritual, while also illustrating how abolition-era visitors interpreted Afro-Caribbean practices through Protestant and racialized assumptions. The source documents reported beliefs and social responses, not successful supernatural operations. Its claims should be checked against Jamaican legal records, newspapers, and local voices.