U
Detecting Bias
Strang
Why would a historian find this to be a biased source of
information?
The author was not a slaveholder, but he gives his
opinion about slavery.
Background information: This passage comes from a
white coffee planter named P. J. Laborie. He wrote this
book to share his expertise with other Britons about the
cultivation of coffee in Jamaica.
In order to make the best of the powers of the enslaved
African, and to keep him helpless, punishment is
unfortunately sometimes necessary. Such also is the case
with soldiers, with sailors, and with all servile classes of
men.
--P. J. Laborie:
The Coffee Planter of Saint Domingo, 1798
The author employs many different types of people.
The passage includes untrue generalizations about
groups of people.
The author is commenting on other professions, not
just coffee planting